DraftKings clears $1M Winning DFS Player of Cheating Allegations

Want to know how to win DFS contests? Just ask the Crowley brothers, Tom and Martin. They sure seem to have a good system down for winning DFS competitions, having each won the DraftKings “Fantasy Football Millionaire” in consecutive years. And according to Martin, following an investigation by DraftKings, he did it without any form of cheating or collusion.

Martin Crowley (aka “papagates”) was one of two lucky winners in last month’s Fantasy Football Millionaire, an enormously popular contest at DraftKings where daily fantasy sports bettors can draft one or more teams for an entry fee of $20 per team. Crowley did so, entering the maximum number of teams – 150 of them, to be exact – taking home a huge prize for his skillful selections.

The problem was, other DFS aficionados were attune to the fact that Martin’s brother, Tom, had pulled off the same arduous task one year prior. That instantly led to accusations from the DFS community that Martin’s win wasn’t wholly based on skill, but possible collusion. And it didn’t make Martin feel any better when DraftKings announced the company was already looking into a potential cheating scandal before it got wind of the community’s suspicions.

DraftKings Launches Investigation

An investigation was immediately launched into the winning DFS player’s actions leading up to the contest. According to Martin, he and his brother did talk game on occasion, but had not hardly spoken in the week prior to the Fantasy Football Millionaire, and when they did, it had nothing to do with their DFS draft picks.

Merely talking about picks is one thing, but what the community was accusing the brothers of was outright collusion – an activity that is prohibited by DraftKings.

If the two had each chosen their rosters together, ensuring that neither of them overlapped (no team had the exact same drafted players), that would essentially be the same as one player being able to draft 300 teams, instead of the max 150. Such advantages are not permitted, and could have cost Martin his winnings.

Martin Knows How To Win DFS Without Cheating

But Martin Crowley says he knows how to win DFS competitions without sinking to duplicitous means, and that the operator found no reason to believe otherwise during its investigation.

According to the Wall Street Journal, who recently spoke with the winning DFS players, “a DraftKings representative called him several weeks ago to say there was no evidence of wrongdoing and that he was eligible to play on the site again.”

Martin was banned from accessing the DFS betting site for about a week while the investigation took place, but the Chicago native is apparently back in action. He told WSJ that he and his brother Tom, who lives in North Carolina, are purposely limiting their communication these days to avoid any future misunderstandings.

Crowley Calls for Clarification from DraftKings

Martin believes DraftKings needs to better clarify it’s anti-collusion policy. The DFS industry encourages communication between friends to fine-tune their skills towards winning DFS contests, yet draws a convoluted line between what constitutes a friendly discussion or prohibited collusion.

“There definitely needs to be some clarification,” he said.

DraftKings Yet To Release Findings

All of this is according to Martin Crowley, who insists he knows how to win DFS, utilizing knowledge, statistics and painstaking efforts to strategize his selections. DraftKings has not officially released the findings of its investigation though, and refused to issue any comment on the situation until it does.