DraftKings Sportsbook Settles Lawsuit From 2019 For $102K

• DraftKings Sportsbook settled a lawsuit in New York for $102,000 stemming from their 2019 Sports Betting National Championship.
• The sports betting operator was accused of not handling the event correctly.
• Players that had to pay $10,000 entry fees to participate then lose out on potential profits because of how the event was handled.

BOSTON – A class-action lawsuit filed against DraftKings Sportsbook from 2019 has been settled by the courts to the sum of $102,000. The lawsuit was filed in January of 2019 by a sports bettor from New York, Christopher Leong over the 2019 Sports Betting National Championship.

Almost 200 others joined the case against the sports betting company because of the way the event was handled by DK.

The Accusations

Leong, with other members of the case, all agreed that DraftKings handled the entire event poorly. Some players were paid early while others were not paid at all, some were allowed to place bets while others were blocked from doing so or had their wagers rejected by the platform.

Those allowed to place bets were said to have had the edge over those that were unable to do so. The entry fee for the contest for Leong and others was $10,000.

The claimants said that the fees they paid were ultimately useless as they were not able to freely participate as they should have been able to do.

By the end of the suit, Leong was paid $7,000, which wasn’t even the amount he had to pay in order to enter the game. His legal team, on the other hand, could be paid up to $66,000.

The other, almost 200 players that made claims within the suit will receive $150 that will be funded to their DraftKings accounts to gamble on whatever they’d like.

All in all, the $102,000 that DraftKings had to pay is nothing compared to the almost $6 million that was estimated as a possible outcome from the lawsuit. The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement held their own investigation and found that DraftKings did not engage in any wrongdoing.

Throughout the duration of the case, the legal sports betting operator claimed their innocence. If they have pleaded guilty, that would have allowed them to become a target for other lawsuits in the future. However, innocent plea or not, this may not be the end of the 2019 Sports Betting National Championship lawsuits.

Another Lawsuit In The Future?

The player that placed third in the Championship, Rufus Peabody, did not place his name on the list for Leong’s case. He was blocked from placing bets in the last round of the contest that could’ve had the potential to give him a very nice payout had he been allowed by the site to do it.

Peabody was contacted by DraftKings and offered about the same amount of money that the courts granted Leong and he turned them down. In doing so, he is now eligible to file his own lawsuit against the sportsbook.

According to his reply on Twitter, Peabody believes the offer by DK was a lowball slap in the face, considering how much the company is worth.

DraftKings Looking Ahead

DraftKings is currently set to merge with Diamond Eagle and SBTech this week. The merger would make the sportsbook a publicly owned business. While DraftKings may continue to see legal issues stemming from the 2019 contest, they are not alone.

SBTech will also have their fair share of legal issues having to do with customers not being able to place bets with their operation.

Now that Diamond Eagle has voted on Thursday to approve the merger of all three companies, the legal team for the new company will have plenty of work on their hands.

News tags: 2019 Sports Betting National Championship | Diamond Eagle | DraftKings | New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement | Rufus Peabody | SBTech