Fantasy fans play despite allegations

Allegations of cheating within the two biggest fantasy sports companies, DraftKings and FanDuel, haven’t scared off their customers. A record number of people entered tournaments for Sunday’s NFL’s games, according to an analysis from SuperLobby, an industry research firm based in the U.K. Together, the top two sites received 7.1 million entries to their guaranteed prize pool tournaments, g e nerat i ng a whopping US$43.6 million in entry fees.

This weekend offered the first real chance to quantify the impact of a brewing controversy on the bottom line of daily fantasy sports. The sites give players the chance to draft a team of real-life players; how well those players do on the field on a particular day determines the outcomes of the fantasy contests. Many tournaments offer cash prizes that stretch into the millions of dollars.

SuperLobby tracks how many people play the multiplayer tournaments known as guaranteed prize pools, information that the sites make public to people as they enter these tournaments when they sign up. DraftKings and FanDuel aggressively advertise the guaranteed prize pool games, and Copeland estimates they account for some 70 per cent of the overall prize pool. A spokeswoman for FanDuel disputed this, but provided no additional information. DraftKings didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The New York Times reported Monday that a DraftKings employee had been winning hundreds of thousands of dollars on FanDuel. While there was no direct evidence the employee had used proprietary information for personal profit, it raised the possibility of an unfair advantage for employees of the sites. People who work at daily fantasy companies are barred from playing on the sites that employ them, but it has been common for them to enter contests on competing sites. Both FanDuel and DraftKings went on the defensive last week, trying to reassure customers and counter the reports of government investigations and a class-action lawsuit.

The reports rattled many daily fantasy players. Some of the biggest players privately drew parallels to what is known in online gambling circles as Black Friday, the 2011 crackdown on online poker companies that left many people unable to access the money in their accounts.

So far, the biggest money is sticking around. Saahil Sud, the top-ranked daily fantasy player in the world, said the controversy wasn’t a “code red” for him. “I don’t think that anyone feels directly cheated, but there’s a concern that someone could do it,” he said. He also noted that he had a financial interest in keeping things running smoothly. If top players pulled their money off the sites and caused a crisis of confidence, they’d be putting their own livelihoods at risk.

Smaller customers may feel differently. Bryan McWethy, a 25-year old from Michigan who plays in small-money games, said the spectre of cheating prompted him to close his account. He thinks less sophisticated players like himself have already been feeling overmatched.