DraftKings cashes in on FantasyHub shutdown and will pay player balances

tKings is to step in and cover unpaid player balances and charitable donations from FantasyHub, a fellow daily fantasy sports (DFS) operator.

FantasyHub shut down in February and DraftKings said it will pay for the outstanding few hundred thousands of dollars.

Players can recover their accounts by following a link on the home page of FantasyHub’s website.

This then diverts them to DraftKings’ site, where they can read a statement which says their accounts can be accessed via DraftKings, giving them a chance to play the contests that DraftKings offer.

Matt Kalish, DraftKings co-founder, told ESPN: "This is not an acquisition deal or an asset purchase deal. This is a very simple deal, where we're assigning two liabilities from [FantasyHub] over to DraftKings in an effort to do the right thing for their player base, which has a nearly 80% overlap with our own.

“We never want to see our player base go through an experience that's negative like this. What happened here was reprehensible. It is a breach of trust for these players and we share a lot of these players with them. We just didn't think it was the right thing to do to sit on the sideline and let that happen.”

It has been a positive week for DraftKings and the rest of the DFS industry, as Virginia became the first US state to specifically regulate DFS when Governor Terry McAuliffe signed SB 646 into law.