Slashdot Mirror
Scandal Erupts In Unregulated Online World of Fantasy Sports
HughPickens.com writes: Joe Drape and Jacqueline Williams report at the NYT that a major scandal is erupting in the multibillion-dollar industry of fantasy sports, the online and unregulated business in which an estimated 57 million people participate where players assemble their fantasy teams with real athletes. Two major fantasy sports companies were forced to release statements defending their businesses' integrity after what amounted to allegations of insider trading — that employees were placing bets using information not generally available to the public. "It is absolutely akin to insider trading. It gives that person a distinct edge in a contest," says Daniel Wallach. "It could imperil this nascent industry unless real, immediate and meaningful safeguards are put in place."
In FanDuel's $5 million "NFL Sunday Million" contest this week, DraftKings employee Ethan Haskell placed second and won $350,000 with his lineup that had a mix of big-name players owned by a high number of users. Haskell had access to DraftKings ownership data meaning that he may have seen which NFL players had been selected by DraftKings users, and by how many users. In light of this scandal, DraftKings and FanDuel have, for now, banned their employees from playing on each other's sites. Many in the highly regulated casino industry insist daily fantasy sports leagues are gambling sites and shouldn't be treated any differently than traditional sports betting. This would mean a high amount of regulation. Industry analyst Chris Grove says this may be a watershed moment for a sector that may need the legislation it has resisted in order to prove its legitimacy. "You have information that is valuable and should be tightly restricted," says Grove. "There are people outside of the company that place value on that information. Is there any internal controls? Any audit process? The inability of the industry to produce a clear and compelling answer to these questions to anyone's satisfaction is why it needs to be regulated."
In FanDuel's $5 million "NFL Sunday Million" contest this week, DraftKings employee Ethan Haskell placed second and won $350,000 with his lineup that had a mix of big-name players owned by a high number of users. Haskell had access to DraftKings ownership data meaning that he may have seen which NFL players had been selected by DraftKings users, and by how many users. In light of this scandal, DraftKings and FanDuel have, for now, banned their employees from playing on each other's sites. Many in the highly regulated casino industry insist daily fantasy sports leagues are gambling sites and shouldn't be treated any differently than traditional sports betting. This would mean a high amount of regulation. Industry analyst Chris Grove says this may be a watershed moment for a sector that may need the legislation it has resisted in order to prove its legitimacy. "You have information that is valuable and should be tightly restricted," says Grove. "There are people outside of the company that place value on that information. Is there any internal controls? Any audit process? The inability of the industry to produce a clear and compelling answer to these questions to anyone's satisfaction is why it needs to be regulated."
I read that as Eddie Haskell first time through.
I am so fucking sick and tired of seeing commercials for fan duel, draftkings, and whatever the fuck the other one is every 15 god damned minutes on my tv.
I'm not sure this would qualify as insider trading since they aren't betting on their own sites. This would be more akin to Apple employees investing in Microsoft based on their internal market research about the Surface.
It's genuinely astounding just how little I care about this. My lack of interest probably couldn't be measured even with the most sensitive scientific equipment.
I'll just sit back and let others who have some stake or interest in it do all the shooting and flaming and arguing. Carry on!
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
While there is debate regarding the authenticity of the quite, PT is attributed with "There is a sucker born every minute." Gambling is for the majority is simply a fools game. I know one professional gambler, and the only game they play is poker and only face to face with cash pots. Think long and hard about all of the reasons why that would be...
Sorry if you were suckered or know someone that did.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Don't fucking play.
They aren't betting on sports... They are betting at FANTASY sports. That's totally different! Kind of like how bingo isn't gambling because the church does it.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
This has been not explained well, so here's my try: to win big money, you do NOT try to maximize your expected score, you maximize your chance of taking one of the top spots, because those pay big. Given that everybody has their complete pick of all the players (ignoring salary cap), the strategy is to pick at least some players that do well that nobody else has picked. So if you know who the other players do NOT have, you can find a few of those that you have some hope might suddenly have a big week and give you lots of points. That's half the battle; the other half, that you can't control, is getting those players to actually do well.
The only fantasy football you'll ever need.
Distribution of bets on players
He once inserted random mutations into his code, just so he could have the experience of debugging.
They got shut down when Congress passed anti-online-gambling legislation in the form of UIGEA. It specifically says that fantasy sports of this sort are exempt:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/us... ... ...
(1) Bet or wager.— The term “bet or wager”—
(E) does not include—
(ix) participation in any fantasy or simulation sports game or educational game or contest in which (if the game or contest involves a team or teams) no fantasy or simulation sports team is based on the current membership of an actual team that is a member of an amateur or professional sports organization (as those terms are defined in section 3701 of title 28) and that meets the following conditions:
rage, rage against the dying of the light
Are you kidding? They are some of the easiest to cheat.
A lot of people misunderstand how bookies set odds. As you point out, it is about popularity, not expected winners. An ideal book with 80% betting on team A would be something like 1:8 odds for A and 7:2 odds for B. Then if $8,000 is bet on A, and $2,000 is bet on B, then if A wins, the bookie pays out $1,000 to the winners (who bet on A) and collects $2000 from the losers, netting a positive $1,000. If B wins, the bookie pays out $7,000 to the winners (who bet on B) and collects $8,000 from the losers, also netting a positive $1,000.
Even if, in fact, the teams are evenly matched, the bookie cares about balancing his book for a guaranteed profit, not about taking a position on which team will win. However, because of the wisdom of crowds phenomenon, it is generally pretty likely that the implied probabilities determined by a balanced book are pretty good representations of the actual probabilities of the team success.
it is generally pretty likely that the implied probabilities determined by a balanced book are pretty good representations of the actual probabilities of the team success.
unless its a local team.. in which case the betting is so lopsided that balancing the action results in such extreme odds that few bettors wish to place any wagers on either side, because they are fans and wont bet against "their favorite team" no matter what the odds. ..in these cases the local bookie gets in touch with a bookie local to the other team and they pool up the action so that the odds they need to offer arent so extreme.
"His name was James Damore."
njnna is right - the bookie doesn't lose his shirt under any circumstances. When you bet on sports you're not really betting against the bookie; you're betting against the other bettors. The bookie is making money because the winners are getting paid less than they would if the bets were mathematically fair. Let's say you had a friendly bet with a buddy over a game. Between you you've decided one team is twice as likely to win. So you bet two dollars, your buddy bets one dollar, and the winner takes all three dollars. Assuming you've judged the odds of the sports outcome properly, this is a mathematically fair bet - if you made it a million times you wouldn't win or lose money (compared to the amount you've bet, anyway).
Now change the scenario and say a third party is acting as a bookie. The bookie offers you 3:8 odds (instead of 1:2) and he offers your buddy 7:4 odds (instead of 2:1). You still bet two dollars, and your buddy still bets one dollar. This time, though, the winner gets $2.75, and the bookie pockets a quarter. Notice he pockets the quarter no matter which team wins. This bet isn't fair, mathematically speaking. If you and your buddy make it a million times you'll both be broke and the bookie will have all your money. This is why you can find bookies everywhere you go, regardless of legality :)