DraftKings Refutes Involvement in Harassment Allegations
Operator Is In Hot Water
DraftKings harassment allegations have surfaced this week, painting a disturbing picture of the company’s handling of an unnamed VIP bettor’s personal information, which allegedly resulted in the man’s assault.
A New York man reports being attacked by an assailant demanding $500,000 on behalf of professional bettor Spanky (real name Gadoon Kyrollos).
According to the report, DraftKings allegedly provided the attacker with the man’s personal information.
The anonymous victim claims he warned DraftKings about the potential assault and the risks associated with sharing his personal information.
When you bet online as a VIP with a sportsbook operator, you provide plenty of identifying information and can essentially be at the whim of the operator to maintain that information safely and securely.
So, an allegation that not only did DraftKings leak this information but did so knowing that there was a risk of physical assault if the company did is particularly damning.
The man also claimed that DraftKings told him that additional security measures were being placed on his account because of his situation and that those measures either were fabricated or simply not followed.
As the man said he was told to pay up or that he would be killed, this is a major allegation and one that DraftKings needs to take extremely seriously.
If an operator can’t be trusted to safely hold clients’ private information, then they’ll lose a lot of trust and could bleed customers.
DraftKings Denied Allegations
As expected, the operator denies the DraftKings harassment allegations, calling them fabricated.
In a statement, the company emphasized that the complaint did not name any specific DraftKings employees who released the sensitive information and claimed the alleged victim has no basis for believing that DraftKings knowingly or unknowingly allowed the information to be released to Spanky and other third parties.
DraftKings denied that there was a security breach of any kind and intimated that the company did nothing wrong whatsoever.
In the court of public opinion, it’ll be crucial for the company to show bettors that by making betting picks with DraftKings, they aren’t opening themselves up to having personal information leaked to the public.
This is particularly true for situations like the one claimed by the alleged victim, who owed a large sum of money to a bookie.
Whenever someone’s life could be in danger, for whatever reason, a company that controls and maintains personal information has to make sure that it is cautious with said information.
Concerns have arisen that DraftKings retaliated against the alleged victim because he was a VIP bettor.
The problems allegedly began when a DraftKings VIP host convinced the man to start betting with the operator.
When Spanky and an associate claimed they were entitled to the large sums in his account, the man informed the DraftKings host about the issue and expressed concern for his life. However, after raising these concerns and complaining about the information leak, DraftKings revoked his VIP status.
DraftKings trial: death threats, extortion and mystery plaintiff🤯
Several DraftKings employees face allegations of leaking a New York resident’s information, leading to an assault and extortion attempt.
Read more🔗https://t.co/teAYk1LJzg#SiGMANews #NY #Leaking
— SiGMA World (@SiGMAworld_) June 27, 2024
Dispute Over How Info Got Out
At the core of the DraftKings harassment allegations is the question of who released the information of the alleged victim.
The man said that Spanky’s associate, someone named Jones, made it clear that got the alleged victim’s personal information from DraftKings.
However, DraftKings did not say if one of their employees did provide the information to either Spanky or Jones.
DraftKings harassment allegations include claims that Joe Di Chiaro, the DraftKings online casino host, expressed sympathy to the alleged victim for the information leak, although DraftKings has not corroborated this.
Di Chiaro referred to the issue as internal, but the complaint lacks details on any actions he took, or tried to have DraftKings take, to address the alleged victim’s concerns.
Interestingly, DraftKings granted a request to change the alleged victim’s email address in October.
DraftKings has not explained this change, despite the threats made against the alleged victim.
This is part of the claim, in that DraftKings may have bypassed its internal security measures regarding email changes to potentially give information to Spanky, Jones, and/or any of their associates.
DraftKings has a lot of answering to do.
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