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AS DAILY FANTASY sports operators FanDuel and DraftKings hustle to prove they can be trusted by thousands of users each week, cheating allegations have served as a backdrop for lingering questions about an industry that has been unregulated.
This week, officials for both companies repeated their mantra that a DraftKings employee who won $350,000 (€308,000) in a FanDuel contest did nothing wrong and did not have access to internal data before his entry into the contest was complete.
But as the companies operate now, it’s up to users of the sites to take their word for it.
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said the company is committed to creating an open and transparent environment.
We have great records of when data is pulled, when communications were sent,” he said in an interview on Fox Business. There was no wrongdoing, he added.
As for regulation, “we’re open to that,” Robins said on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” show, signaling a change of course for the company.
DraftKings hasn’t responded to questions about the degree of access employees have to internal information and when they can access it.
Unregulated
While legal in most US states, daily fantasy sports is unregulated, unlike casinos and lotteries.
Participants put together virtual teams based on real players and compete for points based on the players’ statistics. In that context, the latest incident has been likened to insider trading.
Internal data, describing how often players are selected by all players in the salary-cap style game, could be used strategically to build a lineup of players with a lot of potential who aren’t popular selections among opponents.
If the companies were licensed casinos in Las Vegas, rules would govern who has access to what and when – it’s likely a team of badge-wearing law-enforcement investigators would already be looking into the situation.
Violating the rules would put valuable licences to do business, both for high-ranking employees and the companies themselves, at risk.
Depending on the crime, employees could be prosecuted or added to the state’s black book, formerly a home to mobsters and unsavory characters and more recently a yearbook for cheats and scammers banned from Nevada casinos for life.
When companies get licensed, the very fact that these things could occur act as a deterrent to this type of activity,” said Nevada Gaming Control Board chief A.G. Burnett.
Regulators approve house rules, negotiate disputes between players and the casinos and require reserves that can pay off any unpaid wagers and future bets. State agents can show up whenever they want, unannounced, and audits are routine.
“You can certainly debate how much regulation is important for just about anything,” Joe Asher, chief executive of the US operations for sports betting company William Hill, said.
But I don’t think you can debate the proposition that daily fantasy sports betting needs to be regulated. What you have going on is unregulated internet gambling.”
Outside oversight
The operator of another, smaller, daily fantasy site called for outside oversight, too.
Amaya, which operates StarsDraft.com and is a licensed gambling operator for online poker, said the recent incidents “demonstrate that the current self-regulatory practices have fallen short and that we need stricter state regulation”.
It said the company would lobby states to require regulations akin to those the gambling regulators set, including rules it already follows for its daily fantasy.
Others say self-regulation would ultimately suffice if the industry proves to customers that the sites are fair, including stepping up internal controls.
“They’ve got a good thing going and they need to build these businesses,” said Warren Packard, a venture capitalist and CEO of startup Thuuz Sports, which tracks particularly exciting moments in sports matches to play back highlights. ”They need to be squeaky clean.”
Both daily fantasy sports companies had hired outside law firms and former prosecutors to investigate the allegations raised and review their internal controls.
New York’s attorney general sent letters to DraftKings and FanDuel this week demanding they turn over details of any investigations into their employees.
FanDuel said it is also creating an advisory board led by Michael Garcia, a lawyer who led the investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process then resigned from the FIFA ethics committee in protest over the handling of his findings.
At the mercy
“There absolutely needs to be much stricter regulations from outside governing bodies,” said David Paredes, a professional poker player who said he lost at least $180,000 (€158,500) to an unregulated poker site several years ago.
Otherwise the players are at the mercy of the sites which is not a good scenario.”
In 2007, he and friend Mike Fosco started to see something amiss when playing online poker on sites Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet.
They crunched the numbers and realized that some of the wins that were occurring were an extreme statistical anomaly, eventually helping prove there was a robot program looking at the other players’ critical hole cards, the ones kept secret to bet and bluff.
We should have never had to figure it out in the first place,” he said. “It should have been up to the regulators.”
The sites reported only to a Canadian tribal gambling commission even though the owner of the sites was a former tribal chairman.
Paredes, a professional poker player, said he’s a fan of the daily fantasy sites, but he hasn’t played and is less likely to join given the lack of oversight.
But if there’s money to be made, “sometimes you have to take that risk as a gambler,” he said.
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I’m pretty sure James Joyce is the literary equivalent of revolut, those you have read it look down on those who haven’t and those who haven’t don’t see what the fuss is about.
@Gerard Martin: well said. It made me smile
@Gerard Martin: Revolut’s pretty handy though and I’m not exactly loaded
@Gerard Martin: it’s actually the opposite. Those who have had read Joyce are looked down upon by those who haven’t. And those who have read him understand what the fuss is about.
@michael: and those who said they have read and finished it are liars.
@Breda Kelly: Ulysses.
@Breda Kelly: Nice passive-aggressive sweeping statement. I’ve read it and finished it. Not all in one go mind. Am I a liar?
@Breda Kelly: absolute nonsense. I have read three times over a long period and ad a Dub enjoyed it hugely.
@Breda Kelly: There was no category for “tried but didn’t finish”. Had that been available, it might have been the top answer. For many of us “yes” is the technically correct answer to the question posed but “no” is the more honest answer.
@michael: Well said. People should maybe approach Ulysses through an audiobook. It’s a lot of fun :)
@michael: You just endorsed the comment Gerard posted.
People should try ‘Dubliners’ first, Ulysses is a far bigger challenge.
@James Walsh: Yeah, this is definitely a good approach.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a good read and Dubliners is a nice collection of short stories. Neither have the infamous ‘Joyce an prose’, that stream of consciousness style that is so difficult.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist do have stream of consciousness but not to the extent of Ulysses (or the impossible Finnegan’s Wake). They’re both really accessible and enjoyable to read.
Where’s the option for “I tried but couldn’t manage it and gave up”
Worth reading Dubliners and specifically The Dead even if you’re not inclined to try out the other novels.
YES
@KilkennyProud: I said I will yes.
NO
have read the Dubliners, the dead and half of ulysees; gave up on ulysees as whilst could admire the descriptive detail, book is just not enjoyable; the dead is similar but shorter; Dubliners much better read.
would compare joyce to uncle colm from derry girls, a lot of rambling stories with no real narrative an little interst to majority listening
@Steve Clancy: the Dead is one of the short stores in Dubliners, is it not?
A better poll would be:
1. “Have you ever started to read Ulysses?”
2. “Did you finish it?”
@Ronan Quinlan: I use my copy as a doorstop, always a silver lining.
I have read and loved Ulysses. The language is beautiful and evocative. I find all of the hype and hot air about Joyce around this time of year intensely irritating. Joyce himself probably would have had great fun making fun of the whole Bloomsday lark.
Parts of Ulysses are easily read and enjoyable. I particularly like the scene in the pub at Glasnevin where the Citizen (said to be based on Michael Cusack, a founder of the GAA) swears at Leopold Bloom for saying that Jesus had been a Jew.
@Patrick Brompton: The pub in the Cyclops episode of Ulysses that includes that encomtrr between Bloom and the Citizen is Barney Kiernan’s in Little Britain Street, sadly no longer a pub.. An empty shell of a building.
No but I’d like to (but will never bother).
Read The Dead and you will understand the fuss. Only 60 pages long.
Yes I’ve read Dubliners, it’s quite accessible and not difficult to read, plus it’s short stories so you can read it in bite sized pieces, as it were.
I got as far as halfway through the first chapter of Ulysses. I was proud of that.
half way through Ulysses audio book , quite an experience . really enjoyable.
Dubliners is very enjoyable. I read it first as a teenager and he highlighted all the traits I hated in adults.
Portrait of the Artist is the best place to start ..
So many characters in Ulysses of the type still thriving today. Joyce even anticipated the safe-in-their-bubble know-alls of the commentariat here who end their comments with a “Jesus Wept.”
This from Chapter 3 of Ulysses: His pace slackened. Here. Am I going to aunt Sara’s or not? My consubstantial father’s voice. Did you see anything of your artist brother
Stephen lately? No? Sure he’s not down in Strasburg terrace with his aunt
Sally? Couldn’t he fly a bit higher than that, eh? And and and and tell us,
Stephen, how is uncle Si? O, weeping God, the things I married into! De
boys up in de hayloft. The drunken little costdrawer and his brother, the
cornet player. Highly respectable gondoliers! And skeweyed Walter sirring
his father, no less! Sir. Yes, sir. No, sir. Jesus wept: and no wonder, by
Christ!
My mam was delighted I was born on Bloomsday yet neither of us have read it as far as I know – I certainly haven’t anyway
Would it be as hard to read as Tolstoy’s War and Peace? incidentally, Tolstoys original title to War and Peace was ‘War, What Is It Good For? Thats how the song came about!
@Pauline Gallagher: Easier character names than Tolstoy’s, there’s that.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: ah ok. I was joking about the book title btw.
The Most Dangerous Book in the World about how difficult it was to get Ulysses published is very interesting
Trying to read Ulysses at the moment. Cannot get the hang of it at all. I’ve three chapters read and it just appears to me to be the insane ramblings of a semi-senile old idiot. Nothing makes sense in it, no story line. Will probably finish it just to be able to say that I have read it. How it is regarded as the greatest novel of the 20th century is beyond me. Nora Barnacle was right when she said to him “why don’t you write books that people can read”. This book to me is totally unreadable. I dread to think what Finnigans Wake is like.
@John Cassin: if you want a traditional storyline there’s literally millions of other books to choose from, I think it’s safe to say that Joyce was trying something different with Ulysses. He wasn’t senile or old when he wrote it, it’s all very carefully put together. I’d recommend listening to the RTE audiobook first, but if you really hate it just don’t read it. Simples.
@John Cassin: I read it in a group at a library with a coordinator who was familiar with the book (and probably an expert). Pretty sure I would never have read it on my own. If you have to go it alone maybe read online summaries of the chapters first. You could probably skip a few and come back to them another time.
It’s ‘Finnegans Wake’ NOT ‘Finnegan’s Wake’. It was surely that apostrophe that hastened the good man’s end.
Yes, but I preferred Beckett.
Yes I said yes I have yes.
Ulysses..complete drivel….give me Irvine Welsh anytime
I actually read 1000 pages of it and gave up. Lets be franks, it is impenetrable b*ll*cks. You can clearly see why Joyce is lauded, but it really is just a trudge. My version of it had a 250 page introduction. There is also a stint without full stops for God knows how many pages.
Posters here seem to be mixing “read Joyce” with read Ulysses”
I have read Dubliners and really enjoyed it, got through 100 pages of Ulysses, kinda liked it but have a life so wasn’t motivated to read the final 899 pages, might do one day though.
have your say