On Thursday, October 8, 2015, Fantasy Sports giants DraftKings and FandDuel were hit with a class action lawsuit on the heels of a data leak scandal.
The lawsuit — Johnson v. Fanduel, Inc. et al — was filed by Adam Johnson, a Kentucky resident, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint makes seven different claims against DraftKings and FanDuel, including fraud and misrepresentation, violation of the New York False Advertising Act, and civil conspiracy, among others.
The complaint specifically mentions Ethan Haskell, a DraftKings employee accused of accidentally releasing fantasy contestants’ ownership data before the NFL lineups were locked, and subsequently winning $350,000 on FanDuel. Thus, the DraftKings employee appeared to have access to information unavailable to the public. The complaint goes on to allege that “DraftKings employees have won at least $6,000,000 playing at FanDuel, which is more than one million dollars per year considering DraftKings is only a few years old.”
The lawsuit also comes on the heels of requests from law makers all over the country that the legality of daily fantasy sports websites be investigated.