[Editor’s note: FanDuel is an advertiser of PFT and PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio. Also, NBC Sports has an equity stake in FanDuel.]
As the daily fantasy industry deals with various and assorted attacks on its business model, a new threat has emerged. And this one could pull the NFL directly into the middle of the burgeoning mess.
Via TheHill.com, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) has asked FanDuel and DraftKings to identify all “players, coaches, referees, training personnel and team staff and owners” who have used either website within the last year.
As PFT has previously reported, league personnel are permitted to play daily fantasy games. They are not, however, permitted to receive more than $250 in prizes.
According to TheHill.com, DraftKings said it has received the letter, and that it is “committed to working with all relevant authorities to ensure that our industry operates in a manner that is completely transparent and fair for all consumers, so that they can continue to play the games they love.” FanDuel did not respond to a request for comment from TheHill.com.
Until now, concerns regarding inside information primarily have related to employees of DraftKings or FanDuel acquiring proprietary data and using it in contests on rival platforms. Pallone’s inquiry targets the broader, and more amorphous, question of the use of inside information by people who are in direct position to know about and/or to influence the actual performance of a given player in a given game.
If those folks are actually participating in DFS games, that can become a major problem for the industry -- and for the NFL.
It’s also possible that league personnel are funneling inside information to family members or friends, which could have the same impact on the integrity of the fantasy games but which would be as a practical matter much harder to detect.