Draft Kings Scandal

[Dave Gray]

This is gambling.  Pure and simple.

And this scandal shows that it needs to be regulated.  There is an unfair advantage to having more information than the public and using that to fleece the userbase.

I hope this doesn't wipe out the premise, but instead brings it into legitimacy.

[MikeO]

You will see the government jump in and be all over this. It's an easy score for them and probably 1 thing the 2 parties can agree on.

ESPN is already distancing themselves from both companies. The sports leagues will begin to distance themselves from them. It won't kill this industry but they won't be as main stream going forward.

[Brian Fein]

IMO - employees of either company shouldn't be allowed to participate.  That avoids crap like this.  Of course it doesn't prevent them from telling their brother, cousin, or grandmother to pick whoever players.

If they made that information available to everyone, there would be no problems also.  But, I think that undermines the spirit of the game.

[Sunstroke]

I think they should offer that as a variation for some of the big (thousands of entrants) contests. Next to each player, have it not only show their price, but a running tally on what percentage of the entries have that player rostered. That definitely would motivate people to use a wider range of different players...

[Brian Fein]

They do give out that information AFTER the games are played.  I think it goes against the spirit of the game because, in all, the game is about finding the Joseph Randles and Devonta Freeman's - the low-cost guys that will blow up.  If they showed the percentages, it levels the playing field between those with their eyes open and those without.

[dolphins4life]

How can you possibly know how good a player is going to do unless you have ESP lol

[MikeO]

How can you possibly know how good a player is going to do unless you have ESP lol

I don't know, how can you possibly know how good a stock will do on the stock market? 

It's insider trading using insider information. It needs to be regulated and nobody in their right mind will trust these companies to regulate themselves.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I understand the story long and short is you were always expected to lose money overall, but there was small chance of hitting it very big, with the insiders you will never hit a large jackpot

[Brian Fein]

^^^ not the point of this thread, there is another thread for this conversation.  However, you're still wrong.  To say "you'll never win" is false.  They have aggregate data based on predictions, not based on facts.  You can of course still win.  That guy has probably been playing for 2 years using that data and hit one time.  You mean to tell me that every week people win thousands and all of them are employees?  Doubtful.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

^^^ not the point of this thread, there is another thread for this conversation.  However, you're still wrong.  To say "you'll never win" is false.  They have aggregate data based on predictions, not based on facts.  You can of course still win.  That guy has probably been playing for 2 years using that data and hit one time.  You mean to tell me that every week people win thousands and all of them are employees?  Doubtful.

no that is not what I am saying, but these guys are taking  disproportionate amount of the winning pool, leaving less for the non inside winners, in a game that already takes a big cut.

[Brian Fein]

I can't speak for FanDuel, but Draft Kings appears to take 25% and pay out 75% of the "entry fees."  Considering they pay out 10 million + per week, it suggests these sites are making 3 million or so dollars every week.  Thanks to degenerate football-aholics like me.

[MikeO]

great article to read up on this some more. Here is the most telling part below
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/millionaire-sports-gambler-explains-why-180100740.html

"The real issue is, that I think people don't realize, is the fact that the person who is tuning in and seeing these commercials, and signing up to play in these multi-tournaments, where the winner gets a million dollars, I think if they knew that they were going to enter maybe three, or four, or five entries, but a pro is going to enter 1,000 entries, they wouldn't think it was that exciting to enter these contests. I think that's the part where there is some impropriety.

If the actual casual viewer, watching these commercials and signing up, knew they weren't competing against other like-minded people like themselves, that they're competing against professionals who have algorithms and thousands and thousands of entries in all these tournaments, they would realize that their chances of winning are really not that good and it's really not as exciting as they think it is ... the pros are winning all the money and they are also entering all the contests.

It's a giant partnership between the pros and the sites, and the unsuspecting customers who are doing this for entertainment are literally getting fleeced."

[Phishfan]

I read that article yesterday and it was a pretty good read. Since we have two guys playing, I'm curious if they even considered there were guys out there making that many entries. It was something I had thought about but I am an immediate skeptic usually and this was a main reason I didn't want to invest any money in the game.

[Sunstroke]

I thought there was a cap on the number of entries you could have in any given contest?

[MikeO]

I read that article yesterday and it was a pretty good read. Since we have two guys playing, I'm curious if they even considered there were guys out there making that many entries. It was something I had thought about but I am an immediate skeptic usually and this was a main reason I didn't want to invest any money in the game.

Same with me. Really the reason I have avoided playing. HBO Real Sports did a piece on this last year too that gave me reservations about playing.