DraftKings, Inc. released a report last month summarizing the findings of “an independent investigation” conducted by Greenberg Traurig, LLP into the allegations that DraftKings employee Ethan Haskell used non-public information for his own advantage in playing a daily fantasy sports game on the FanDuel web site.
The Greenberg Traurig investigation was led by John Pappalardo, the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, and “confirmed the Company’s conclusions based on its own internal review of the matter,” according to DraftKings.
The company said the findings revealed that:
“1. Mr. Haskell did not utilize non-public information regarding aggregate player ownership percentages in fantasy lineups in DraftKings daily fantasy sports games when the September 27th, 2015 FanDuel lineup was entered.
“2. Moreover, it would have been impossible for Mr. Haskell to have used such non-public information because he only gained access to internal DraftKings data a full forty minutes after the lineup was locked.”
Jason Robins, CEO of DraftKings, said he was “very pleased that the independent investigation by Greenberg Traurig confirmed the findings of our internal review of this matter and our conclusion that there was no improper use of information by our employee. In fact, as the investigation also concluded, it was not even possible for non-public information to have been used improperly,” he added.
Nevertheless, the company “expanded its existing policy prohibiting its employees from participating in games run on its own web site to all other daily fantasy sports web sites.”
A copy of DraftKings’ report on the findings of the Greenberg Traurig investigation is available at http://pb-cdn.draftkings.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/DraftKings-Independant-Summary-of-Findings-GT-FINAL.pdf.
