And Now A Message from Draft Kings

As the three co-founders of DraftKings, we want to speak to you directly about what has been going on.

Nothing says we want to get in front of this problem like playing it from the rear

We know that you play DraftKings because it’s fun and because it gives you a chance to showcase your skills against millions of other fans, and we know that you cannot do that without a level playing field.

Gambling is only fun when you are winning, and I am still trying to figure out the skill set tested? Your best skill is you can randomly select a group of people or that you are actually a sophisticated Bot who enters multiple variations of teams from multiple accounts spending $100,000 just to win $105,000?

The fairness and integrity of our contests has been at the heart of everything we have built since we started the company three and a half years ago.

Ah yes 2012 the golden years of business ethics

Over the past week, questions have arisen around an employee of ours who won a significant prize on a competitor’s site. While our internal investigation has reflected absolutely no wrongdoing on his part, this has still pushed us to reevaluate our processes.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. We only know the algorithms used by our competitors to determine lineup efficiency nothing a very skilled player like yourself couldn’t do on your own free time. I mean this is legal like trading stocks and thee is nothing illegal about insider trading right?

Long before this happened, the wheels were in motion for an external review of our policies and procedures. Given the pace of our growth, we felt that an audit was critical to ensure the security of our platform, so we hired an external law firm experienced with these issues to conduct a full review.

This is totally a coincidence we were already looking into this stuff before this information was pointed out. In Fact, we were thinking so hard about this issue we forgot to hire the law firm and auditors until after this came to light… swearzies. This has nothing to do with the class action lawsuit being filed against us for being as fair and balanced as FoxNews after 7pm Est.

But that is not enough. In addition to this audit, we have put in place a set of core measures that we believe are central to this process:

  • We expanded our existing policy prohibiting DraftKings employees from playing on our site to prohibit participation in any public daily fantasy sports contests for money.
  • We also will prohibit employees from any other Daily Fantasy Sports contest operator from participating in games on DraftKings.
  • We are actively reviewing our organizational structure and will add resources to ensure compliance with all recommendations stemming from internal and external findings.
  • We are working with multiple third parties to strengthen all internal policies and procedures.

Yeah, those first two steps are not even remotely possible to investigate or stop. All it means is IF they get caught we will ban them. Hope the employees don’t have different email addresses or friends who play right?
Those last two points are saying the same thing “We are looking at things and if we find things we will spend money to address them.” Basically this entire letter could be summed up with these two bullet points. So what the hell is the rest of this fluff?

The events of the past week have caused us to take a broader look and to ask those both here and externally to widen the scope of their analysis of our business.

Don’t for one moment think this stuff is purely a smoke screen to distract you from the fact we have more bots in our system than Ashley Madison

We are aware that there is room for growth, regardless of the strength of our current platform. We will work tirelessly to improve all aspects of our customer experience, which is every bit as important to us as the effort we put into our product.

Maybe there is room to make prop bets also a game of skill it does take years of research to predict how long a national anthem would last

You will no doubt continue to hear from the media about both DraftKings and the industry. It is our prerogative to keep driving that conversation ourselves. We will work to respond to your concerns in complete transparency and to inform you of the steps we are taking to inspire your full trust.

Trust us when we say if you hear about it in the news we have already been working on correcting this matter for months years since the beginning of TIME ITS SELF!

Please know how grateful we are for the passion and loyalty you have shown DraftKings throughout our history and especially over the past week. You remain our greatest priority.

Remember we cannot make money if you do not drop it into our account on the offshoot chance you think you can actually win a game like the hired actors who say they have won using our site

Thank you,

Jason Robins, Matt Kalish & Paul Liberman
Co-Founders, DraftKings

Paul Liberman is the guy who said in a conference last month at Babson College that some of the company’s employees made more off other fantasy sites than their salaries at DraftKings.

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ballsofsteelandfury

Very well done! Excellent job.

Doktor Zymm

Meta daily fantasy. Each week try to put together the best team of daily fantasy executives to avoid lawsuits and federal prosecution! You can win big!!!!

Old School Zero

More bots than A.M.–I totally believe this.

blaxabbath

As someone who had to grow up constantly battling the stereotypes of young white males, I’d like to stab that guy right in the fucking throat.

I know, it’s tough being born white.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Sports jerseys can actually do a really good job at establishing your identify and preventing confusion as to who you are and what you’re about. For example, when I wear my Raiders jersey out in public I never hear anybody yelling “What the hell happened to my kid’s bike?” and “Hey, where did all this broken glass come from?”

blaxabbath

Broken bottles are Raider Nation’s version of ‘Build the Damn Wall!’

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

It’s the soil from which the bountiful harvest of Raider Nation grows.

ballsofsteelandfury

Also,

“Who puked on the sidewalk?”

“Who tagged my fence with graffiti?”

And,

“Who is the father?”

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Pb2e59AQ1i0/hqdefault.jpg

montythisseemsstrangetome

DraftKings is just a tax on the stupid.

blaxabbath

Granted, I haven’t researched these accusations any further than this post, but wouldn’t part of the creation of your company include preventing employees from any type of sports wagering (a la NCAA student athletes)? You know, a “Employees and their families of Delta Airlines and their subsidiaries are not eligible for this offer” kind of thing.

Also, the employee in question (I just read an article outside DFO) is Ethan “Eddie” Haskell,

blaxabbath

Please understand that, in the most corporatist nation in the history of time, that we are a disruptive innovator with millions in Silicon Valley backing WITH ONLY THE FAN AT HEART.

http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/video/video.snl.com/SNL_0686_08_Update_02_Mr_Subliminal.png

(AmericansAreIdiots) Ok, any questions?

laserguru

FJM style! Nice!
Fan duel draft kings draft kings fan duel fan duel draft kings draft kings.

These ad campaigns are the most compelling reasons to get a DVR that I’ve ever seen.

Also, after an informal poll I’ve found out that almost half of the people I asked have actually played this shit. I will forever abstain.

blaxabbath

I’ve learned my lesson playing sportsbook online — and, like with Taco Bell, I still occasionally go back. But I do so knowing what may be in store for me.

I always have expected DraftKings to run a game where you and your opponent each get a Wild Card player that isn’t exposed to you until after MNF. As which point, you reveal Jimmy Clausen and the house gets Rodgers on his career night.

Can you gamble on pro wrestling?

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I thought the Generals were due!

http://i.imgur.com/BBcZuuH.png

ballsofsteelandfury

Me too. I get my fix of insane sports gambling by being in the two DFO 20-team leagues. I’m so happy we only kept the entry fee to $50!