INDUSTRY FORUM

So I originally put in a withdrawal request on the 28th of January. I then got an email from them on February 2nd that I needed to submit a W9 and that my withdrawal wouldn’t be processed until I did. I emailed them the W9 on the 5th (and received a 1099 in the mail from them two days ago).

My withdrawal still hasn’t gone through. I emailed them on the 12th, and contacted them through the website yesterday, both with no response… Anyone else having issues with them?

3/10/16 UPDATE: DraftKings strikes a deal to cover all unpaid FantasyHub balances and liabilities. Read more from David Purdum on ESPN!

DraftKings Co-Founder Matt Kalish’s Statement: “This is not an acquisition deal or an asset purchase deal. This is a very simple deal, where we’re assigning two liabilities from [FantasyHub] over to DraftKings in an effort to do the right thing for their player base, which has a nearly 80 percent overlap with our own. We never want to see our player base go through an experience that’s negative like this. What happened here was reprehensible. It is a breach of trust for these players and we share a lot of these players with them. We just didn’t think it was the right thing to do to sit on the sideline and let that happen. We had the ability to step up and do something.”

At the very least, player funds should been separated and clearly they weren’t or we would have been paid. Our money is paying for their legal counsel right now and who knows whatever else they’re doing…

This is nonsense. What a shameful take on the whole situation.

This type of post just makes the entire situation worse.

The is an inverse relationship between the amount of money that individual earns on DFS and the amount of truth they want spoken about an industry that is clearly on the fringe of shadiness right now.

Rotogrinders should make things right for all the people that got scammed by signing up through RG links or making large deposits for the BS promos that were heavily promoted here. They should at least give back all the money FantasyHub has paid them for their partnership deal. Im sure the media would make RG look horrible if they profited from this.

Talking to reporters doesn’t get anything done you want it doesn’t get your money back, it doesn’t get the founders in legal trouble, it doesn’t make them try to give back your money…

Now talking to an AG does all of those things AND it doesn’t lead to bad PR… one is a responsible approach the situation and one makes us feel better but hurting us long term

If there is bad PR here it is because Fantasy Hub STOLE money from players, they had their chance to make things right and have done nothing.

Saying players shouldnt do everything in their power to bring light on this situation is pathetic.

A scorched earth approach isn’t going to help us in the long-term, we are in a real fight for survival, you don’t give the opposition free ammunition for nothing

The media isn’t going to start writing page 1 articles on this to bring real light to the situation, its just page 10 articles that are used by politicians as reasons why it shouldn’t be legalized

The media can’t jail people for their criminal activity, AG’s can

What does going to the media actually accomplish?

Players had been saying for years that site employees shouldnt be playing on other sites as its a terrible look for the industry, sites completely ignored the players until the media made it a story and then changes immediately took place.

Apples and Oranges, those sites are trying to be moral and ethical they just disagreed with us

Criminals don’t care what is written about them

They care about freedom, and money… Media can’t take either away

It has been brought to my attention that DB profusely apologized for endorsing Fantasy Hub on his podcast. Unfortunately, I was not one of his six listeners that day.

Good on him.

And what does a keep your mouth shut approach do?? If you play win and don’t get paid Whats the point?

Right, media attention cannot bring about legal action, guys. Don’t you all know that Spotlight, the movie that won best picture this year, is completely farcical???

Media reports on legal actions. Regardless what actions players take, the media will be involved and will report as they see fit. Media attention can precipitate legal change

No one has said keep your mouth shut, I never said that and would never say that.

I’m saying put our efforts where they will do the most good for fixing this problem and ensuring it doesn’t happen again

If other site operators see criminals go to jail they will think twice before trying it themselves

TO THE SPIN ZONE!!!!!

So if these guys are able to take the money and be bailed out to avoid the bad press, what’s their next move? Criminals don’t stop being criminals; they learn from their mistakes (typically) and refine their technique. Without punishment and regulation in this industry, they’ll be free to abuse the system again and again.

Go quietly and potentially eat the loss while they avoid their lumps? No sir.

I mean you’ve been the one spinning the comments out of context for a narrative… I’ve just said the media isn’t the way to approach this

You can agree or disagree with that but any opinion saying I don’t care about people is disingenuous at best and my history in the industry and on the forums clearly indicate I care about players and the industry

i’ve been waiting to hear the outcome of all of this even though i have no money with them. i spoke to plappert by phone, about two weeks before the shutdown. it was my first time talking with him. it was an ad sales call.
when i got off the phone, it was my impression that he was just a kid. all of his partners, were kids too. maybe just out of school. they were given money by a start up incubator, and that was all the money they had. they had a business model of acquiring people for 6 dollars while others spent 63 per person. from the beginning, they were running on borrowed time.
it wouldn’t have surprised me if they all still lived with their parents to save as much money as possible.
they were in over their heads.
i don’t think they were criminals like you think. i think they were naive and the people who gave them their start up money were naive.
Those tech start up incubators are supposed to have mentors and such….. where were they in all of this?
I really think these were kids that were given the keys to the car and had no idea how to drive. When that happens, there’s going to be an accident. In my opinion, the incubation company is at fault here as well. They should have been on top of them and helping them out. Especially when it came to legalities.

No one thought they were criminals, till they shut down after taking a $500 deposit bonus. No one though they were criminals, till we found money wasn’t actually going to charity. When we put all this together, we get criminals. Criminals who tried in a large amount of cash, knowing they were going to get shut down. Criminals who weren’t paying money to charities as they should have been. Don’t feel bad for them one lick and hope they get the worst. You can not steal peoples money and just disappear. Especially Stevie who logs in everyday and doesn’t post anything. The hell with all of them.

This whole situation is a double edged sword. If we speak up and start email blasting AG’s, news media, law enforcement, there is a really good chance someone at some point will run with it. When they do pick it up, its likely they dont have the first clue about DFS and paint the entire industry in a negative light. This could lead to politicians and AGs wanting to get good press and drop the hammer on DFS. It could also lead to common sense regulation (the govt never uses common sense) which could benefit everyone.

If we stay silent and let things play out there is a chance we could get our money. We could also be enabling more sites into taking the FH approach if/when they close but there is a chance the mainstream media doesnt run with the story and DFS stays out of the presses.

When we make claims against Paypal and credit cards we in fact get our money back but in turn the payment processors jack up the rates to DFS sites because of the “high risk”.

DFS is in a fight for survival right now. There is no good answer.

If someone stole your money then talk to whoever the hell you want to. Maybe the media will help your situation and maybe they won’t. You don’t owe anything to this industry that created an environment where something like this can happen. This industry doesn’t care about the little guy. They made that clear a long time ago.

Criticisms of the industry have long fallen on deaf ears. Only since the media has gotten involved have we seen any indication of sites making overdue changes. Of course, there are many people in this industry that want to sweep this under the rug. It’s in their best interest to do so. Looking out for the best interest of those people as opposed to the DFS community as a whole is why we are in this mess to begin with. Certain people don’t want this industry to become regulated. They benefit from the way it is currently run. Don’t let those people’s selfishness dissuade you from exposing these scumbags.

RG has egg on its face no doubt. But no one forced you into signing up on FH. RG absolutely does not owe anyone their money back. My hope is that everyone learns from this and stricter policies are in place by RG when it comes to endorsing sites.

Was there really a 3rd party? I believe a few people (RG, ESPN) claim to have spoken to the first “strategic party” but were sworn to secrecy or some such BS. Was the last name of the “strategic party” the same as the last name of the principle parties? I think you all lied at this point!

As far as we’ve been able to piece together, FantasyHub stole our money, did not pay all the money to charity they claimed to have paid, then disappeared.

I can’t imagine a white knight coming to the rescue in a state that some companies are pulling out of. This is a dying industry, not a thriving one. The FSTA is a complete waste, and part to blame IMO, even an RG site recommendation is worthless now.

RG was paid with money that was stolen from players that deposited though the promos that were heavily promoted here. Im sure legally they dont have to pay it back, but its pretty sickening to think that RG would want to profit off of this.

Common sense would lead us to believe that there is/was a third party. First, the player operating account was less than $175,000, if you use the site rankings and compare draft pots players account that contained $165,000. DP was 9 biggest, FH was 10 biggest. Second, two of the kids dads were members of FH, LLC as disclosed on its articles of organization. Every member of FH LLC has skin the game so to speak. If civil fraud can be proven and thats a big if, then FH, LLC’s corporate shield can be pierced, therefore FH’s members would be on the hook personally for the debts of FH.

The wrinkle in all of this is the potential charity non-payments. This wrinkle could be enough to turn away potential buyers and have left FH and its members scrambling for a back up plan. Im sure FH’s counsel as advised them, you will pay out the money one way or another either by making the players whole or by defending law suits.

Working with Hub has to be the most regrettable decision I’ve made at RG. Techstars and funding helped give me confidence, but the charity angle and RG-only forum giveaways with athletes’ charities drew me in. Those forum promotions over time changed to what we saw at the end – a 500% deposit bonus promo when they were apparently on the brink of collapse. I’m furious about that.

I remain confident players will get their funds back, though. I’m shut out of the current negotiation, but even if it falls through there are other options to pursue. The only updates I’m getting on the current negotiation is that it remains close to finalizing. It’s crazy to me that either side would let this deal lag but I don’t know the details leading to the delay.

No doubt that our vetting of sites needs to improve – both initial and ongoing. We’re figuring out how best to do that as regulatory vetting also unfolds.