DraftKings Contest Payouts Involving Suspended Game Class Action

DraftKings, Inc. and DraftKings Holdings, Inc. offer customers daily fantasy sports (DFS) competitions as well as sports betting. When Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin collapsed during a game with the Cincinnati Bengals in January 2023, and the game was suspended, the company made choices as to how to handle its current contests. The complaint for this class action alleges that in some cases these choices violated its own rules for suspended games.

The Nationwide Class for this action is all persons in the US who entered a Showdown or Flash Draft contest offered by DraftKings which included the January 2, 2023 NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals, and to whom the contest indicated winnings were owed at the time the game was suspended, during the greatest applicable statute of limitations period through the present.

DraftKings fantasy football contests allow customers to choose a lineup of NFL players and “watch as they rack up points for touchdowns, yards gained, and more during the games. If your lineup scores enough points, you’ll win cash prizes…”

During the Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game, Hamlin collapsed, with 5:58 left to go in the quarter. He was taken to a hospital, and the NFL suspended the game. The complaint alleges, “At the time, the NFL did not cancel, reschedule, or otherwise postpone the game, but the NFL did decide on January 3, 2023 that it would not resume play in the Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game until a later week.”

DraftKings began to contact DFS participants the day after the game, the complaint alleges, saying that “entries for Showdown and Flash Draft contests will be canceled and refunded” and also canceling all single-game Reignmakers contests for that particular game.

However, DraftKings did not cancel other contests but instead decided to pay out based on statistics that included points from the suspended game. Also, the complaint quotes the company as saying, “Any lineups with a drafted player in the CIN/BUF game from these sets will receive EF-Winnings to ensure not entries from this game will be at a net loss” and that, with Best Ball contests, “[i]f the game is not played, [DraftKings] will pay out based on current standings.”

But the complaint contends the contests already have rules for suspended games. It quotes the rules for certain contests as including the following line: “If the NFL declares a game ‘suspended’ then the statistics generated before the game is suspended will count in Game Sets containing said game.” Other games have different rules.

By choosing certain contests in which the statistics would apply and others which it would cancel and refund, the complaint alleges, DraftKings violated its own contest rules and did not pay out to participants who were entitled to winnings.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Breach of Contract, Contest Rules, Deceptive Advertising