Texan Mosaic

by:JOSHUA RAMIREZ/Sports Editor

The fantasy sports industry has risen to new heights in recent years with companies such as FanDuel and Draft Kings reaching unpredicted levels of popularity.

But would fans still play if the games were rigged?

The unregulated industry of fantasy sports recently was hit with allegations of what amounts to insider trading by employees. The accusations started after a Draft Kings employee accidentally released game and player information before he was supposed to.

The information released would give whoever had it an undeniable advantage over those who didn’t. When the same employee who released the information won $350,000 at a rival site, FanDuel, flags were raised.

The situation prompted New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to launch an investigation in order to find out if any wrongdoing took place between the two sites.

Draft Kings has since released a statement saying that they don’t believe that their employee violated any rules in place by the company or the industry as a whole.

As of today, fantasy sports operate under the assumption that they require skill rather than chance. Therefore, they are not regulated the same way regular gambling would be, leaving the industry a nice loop-hole to sit in.

In this unregulated industry, whether the employee used his information or not really doesn’t matter, since it doesn’t technically break any laws.

That makes it hard to believe this is the only employee involved in this scandal, especially after reports surfaced that Draft King employees have won what amounts to millions of dollars on FanDuel.

After a scandal of this size, fantasy sports will likely have to take steps to better regulate the information its employees have, as well as how they use it. If not, the industry will likely be subjected to regulations forced on them by law.

Both FanDuel and Draft Kings have banned their employees from playing on any fantasy sites as a reaction to the scandal. But they will likely face more stringent regulation in the near future.

Whether fans decide to continue playing a rigged game that they will likely never win is up to them. But if I could give them a word of advice, I would say, stop playing, you’re being robbed.