CONGRESS

Fantasy Sports Sites FanDuel, Draft Kings Under Fire Over Employee's Tweet

The multi-billion dollar Fantasy Sports industry is taking a hit.

Two of the most popular sites, FanDuel and Draft Kinds, are under fire after an employee tweeted data that could be used to gain an advantage in drafting fantasy teams. That same employee, who works for Draft Kings, won $350,000 on FanDuel last week.

More than 50 million people play fantasy sports by visiting an online site like FanDuel and add money to a weekly pot. Participants are given a budget, select professional players for their personal team and have an opportunity to win money based on how well their team does.

San Jose-resident Mike Bingham plays on Draft Kings and was considering participating on FanDuel, but not anymore after the recent news.

"I'm definitely not going to invest more money into either site until there more transparency going on for an employee of a competitor to win $350,000," Bingham said. "That's a red flag to me."

FanDuel and Draft Kings on Tuesday defended the employee saying he did nothing wrong. The Fantasy Sports sites also released a joint statement saying their employees are barred from participating in any online Fantasy Sports contests until the industry develops a more detailed policy concerning the use of competitive data.

But the scandal has already prompted lawmakers to question whether Congress needs to look into the industry.

"The answer is yes," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. "And it also should be a warning shot to everybody that online gaming is a really scary thing and we better look at all of it."

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