New York Attorney General's office wants answers from DFS operators

office of the New York Attorney General has written to DraftKings and FanDuel to ask for information regarding policies for the access of data by employees, following the leakage of data from a DraftKings employee.

DraftKings written content manager Ethan Haskell released information about a Millionaire Maker National Football League (NFL) contest hosted by the daily fantasy sports (DFS) operator prior to the NFL games involved in the contest taking place.

In a letter to both operators, published by the New York Times, the Attorney General’s office made a series of information requests. These requests included asking the companies to identify employees that compile data and for detail of information used by Haskell and Matthew Boccio. Boccio works in product operations at DFS operator FanDuel and was reported by DFS Report to have become one of the top 50 overall DFS players by RotoGrinders rankings, using the username PetrGibbons.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said in a radio interview: “It’s something we’re taking a look at — fraud is fraud.”

The data leaked included the percentage of teams that players appear in.

This type of data is regularly posted after games have started and line-ups are completed, but not before.

Haskell reportedly won $350,000 playing with FanDuel in the same week that the data was leaked, using the username “haskele”.

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association, DraftKings and FanDuel said in a joint statement: “While the industry works to develop and release a more detailed policy, DraftKings and FanDuel have decided to prohibit employees from participating in online fantasy sports contests for money.”