Bailey & Glasser Files Class Action Against DraftKings

BOSTON, Oct. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- DraftKings, the fantasy sports behemoth whose ads are everywhere this football season, offers new participants a match of their initial deposit when they first sign up to DraftKings' website.  DraftKings' recruits new players with a promise that those who sign up "today" will receive an exclusive, limited-time 100% deposit match. In a class action lawsuit filed today in federal court in Boston, a Massachusetts man claims that DraftKings' deposit matching promises are themselves a fantasy.

For example, DraftKings represents that when a new player deposits $600 in a DraftKings account, the promised deposit match of an additional $600 "will already be available to you." DraftKings' internet videos promise that when a new player signs up, he (participants are overwhelmingly male) will "automatically get" the additional matching deposit. But John Roddy and Elizabeth Ryan, the Bailey & Glasser lawyers who filed the suit, said that a new player who deposits $600 expecting to have $1,200 immediately "available to him" learns only after the fact that the "deposit match" is illusory. The only way to actually get the "free" deposit match is to pay thousands more in entry fees to play contests, to earn points that are converted to dollars very, very slowly. A player depositing $600 would have to pay at least $15,000 in entry fees to realize the promised $600 deposit match. And DraftKings' requires the new player to spend that additional $15,000 within four months of putting down that first $600.

The suit alleges that, "as designed, DraftKings' promise of a deposit match that will 'already be available to you' upon registration as a new Player is a blatant deception, and its undisclosed condition requiring players to spend 25 times their initial deposit within four months to realize the 100% match DraftKings' promised makes it virtually impossible for the Player to realize upon that promise."

The Boston office of Bailey & Glasser is handling the suit, which seeks to hold DraftKings to its promise, that is, immediately matching the deposits placed by new players when they are first recruited by DraftKings. The suit is called Wicksman v DraftKings, Inc., and is pending in the US District Court, District of Massachusetts, Civil Docket Number 1:15-cv-13559.

Founded by Ben Bailey and Brian Glasser in 1999 in Charleston, West Virginia, Bailey & Glasser LLP has grown to include 50 lawyers, with offices in eight states and D.C. The firm's complex litigation practice focuses on high-stakes commercial litigation; class actions for consumers, insureds, investors, and retirement plan participants; catastrophic injury and defective product cases; antitrust; and whistleblower lawsuits.  The firm has extensive experience in energy law, and litigates energy cases in trial courts, bankruptcy courts, regulatory agencies, and appellate courts. It has a major corporate practice, and handles business matters ranging from assisting Chinese investors in acquiring US assets, to IPOs, to the negotiation and execution of billions of dollars in commercial transactions.

Contact: John Roddy     (617) 439-6730[email protected] www.baileyandglasser.com  

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SOURCE Bailey & Glasser LLP