The parent company of the Fantasy Football National Championship entered into a contract with U. S. Integrity after firing a worker for changing the lineup in a $150,000 competition.
The integrity of a high-stakes fantasy football festival was called into question this week following a scandal that led to the firing of an employee.
The NFL’s postseason festival of the Fantasy Football National Championship went awry after a worker replaced a competitor’s roster after games started on back-to-back weeks, according to an ESPN report.
The employee of parent company SportsHub “fired” with just cause, while the contestant was disqualified from the festival that will pay $150,000 to the winner and was banned from the platform, NFFC founder Greg Ambrosius said in a message posted on the company’s website.
“Recently, with the help of a report from a public source, we were able to reveal a post-deadline movement in one of our NFFC postseason Hold ‘Em contests that was temporarily detected and confirmed, allowing SportsHub to take immediate action on the “Due to ongoing legal factors, SportsHub is unable to comment on the explicit main points or who is responsible. While it would not be possible to prevent all problematic activity, early detection and remediation are critical to maintaining the integrity of the game. “
Queues will need to be blocked and can only be replaced by internal controls. The scandal was exposed through members of the fantasy podcast “Ship Chasing,” and the resources explained to ESPN what adjustments were made.
On wild-card weekend, the worker replaced Miami’s Raheem Mostert with Green Bay’s Aaron Jones, who totaled 118 yards and 3 touchdowns against Dallas, after Mostert played the night before and Jones ran to score his first touchdown.
In the NFL divisional round, Kansas City’s Travis Kelce replaced teammate Rashee Rice after the tight finish hit an opposite landing pass to the Buffalo Bills.
The contest had 1,521 entries at $200 per entry. NFCC does not know why the employee helped this contestant.
The incident sheds light on how high-stakes fantasy football can be manipulated and could call into question more regulation. More and more U.S. states that have and haven’t legalized sports betting are tackling fantasy sports through legislation.
The NFCC scandal could certainly heighten that awareness and question how these sites operate.
“I think it’s incredibly negative (for the fantasy industry),” Paul Overzet, a podcast member who discovered the issue, told ESPN. “We’re at a time where other people need to get into conspiracy theories. ” “Not only do you know that this can happen, but that it has happened, I think it will sow the seeds of distrust. “
Ambrosius announced that it has hired U. S. Integrity, a company that monitors and alerts regulators, sports betting, NCAA conferences and professional sports leagues to suspicious habits.
Meanwhile, the NFCC race continues, despite Ambrosius’ attempts to allay integrity fears.
“NOTHING is more vital than the integrity of our contests. NOTHING,” Ambrosius wrote. No one trusts us with their money if something can work. I am sad. I’m disappointed. I’m in shock. I’m angry. I’m very angry. But we can never allow something like this to happen and we now have safeguards in place to alert other people if it happens again. This will not be the case.