DraftKings investigating potential collusion in millionaire contest

Daily fantasy sports site DraftKings is investigating a potential collusion scandal involving its “Fantasy Football Millionaire” contest.

One of the top daily fantasy sports players in the world won the contest, which yielded a $1 million prize. The user, Martin Crowley, who goes by the name “papagates,” has a brother, Tom, who won a million dollar contest last year. Tom goes by username “chipotleaddict,” and there was immediate speculation after Martin won last week that the two brothers were colluding after there was found to be no overlap between the multiple lineups they submitted.

“We are in the process of an ongoing investigation,” said Jennifer Aguiar, the DraftKings head of compliance, via the Wall Street Journal.

Having a lineup with little overlap to the rest of the public increases one’s chances of winning a contest. Players are allowed up to 150 entries in the “Fantasy Football Millionaire.” If both brothers played the max, they would have submitted 300 lineups total.

Martin Crowley says he did not collude with his brother and that he was confident he would be cleared. DraftKings’ internal system already had flagged the lineups for possible issues before the issue blew up in attention.

Last week, a poster on the RotoGrinders forum noted that the brothers often submitted the same amount of entries into events with no overlap in their lineups.

This is the latest in a string of scandals the daily fantasy sports industry has faced since the product exploded in popularity over the past few years. Another scandal involved allegations of insider advantages last year, which led to calls for federal regulation of the games.

H/T Deadspin