DraftKings has cleared an employee of any wrongdoing after it was alleged he used insider information to win $350,000 (€308,300) on a website operated by rival daily fantasy sports (DFS) company FanDuel. Ethan Haskell, a manager at DraftKings, released key data on fantasy teams for the NFL American football league and won the real-money prize on FanDuel in the same week. Data released by Haskell showed which NFL players were most used in teams submitted to the website’s ‘Millionaire Maker’ contests, with this data not usually released until the line-ups for games have been completed. Furthermore, having such information prior…

New Jersey’s effort to offer legalized sports betting was given new life Wednesday when a federal appeals court agreed to reconsider its decision to prohibit gambling on games. The move vacated an Aug. 25 decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia that upheld a lower-court ruling that had voided state legislation on sports gambling. The judges held then, in a 2-to-1 decision, that New Jersey’s efforts to allow casinos and racetracks to take bets violated the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, or Paspa, which was passed in 1992. “We acknowledge New…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun an inquiry into the practices of booming daily fantasy sports websites after players of the games and lawmakers made allegations of predatory tactics and questioned the use of insider information, according to fantasy players who said they had been contacted by investigators. The F.B.I. began contacting several prominent competitors in the contests, the players said, shortly after an employee of DraftKings, one of the two most prominent daily fantasy companies, admitted to inadvertently releasing data before lineups for the start of the third week of N.F.L. games were locked in. The employee, a…

United States Sen. Robert Menendez and Congressman Frank Pallone have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate daily fantasy sports operators who allowed employees with access to nonpublic information to compete on rival sites. “Allowing employees of fantasy sports websites with access to nonpublic information to participate in online fantasy games, even if the games are operated by other fantasy sports companies, could give those employees an advantage akin to insider trading,” Menendez and Pallone stated in an Oct. 6 letter to the FTC. “Therefore, we also ask the FTC to investigate whether this constitutes an ‘unfair or deceptive practice’…

Nevada gaming regulators banned unlicensed daily fantasy sports websites from providing their product to Silver State customers, saying the activity constitutes sports wagering. In an order filed by the Gaming Control Board Thursday, the agency said daily fantasy sports websites, such as DraftKings and FanDuel, can apply for a Nevada gaming license to operate a sports pool. The Control Board issued a “cease and desist” order that bans the websites from Nevada. “Since offering daily fantasy sports in Nevada is illegal without the proper license, all unlicensed activities must ceases and desist from the date of this notice,” wrote Gaming…

Amaya has stepped into the DFS ‘data leak scandal’ by calling on regulators in the US to take a tougher stance on daily fantasy sports (DFS) in order to better protect consumers and players. DFS has come under fire in the US this week after it was revealed that a DraftKings manager inadvertently released data showing he knew which players were most picked prior as part of American football fantasy teams. He then went on to win US$350,000 (€312,800) betting on NFL games through rival operator FanDuel. DraftKings and FanDuel in a statement defended the integrity of their businesses and…