Turn on the TV and you’ll see a non-stop stream of ads for daily fantasy sports websites and now there’s some controversy.
The two biggest fantasy sports online companies – FanDuel and DraftKings – are defending themselves against cheating allegations.
Could federal regulation be on the way?
Callum Borchers is a business reporter with the Boston Globe. He recently sat down with DraftKings co-founder Jason Robins for an extensive interview.
Borchers told KNPR's State of Nevada that Robins said his site has to be run honestly or the people using it won't trust them. Robins doesn't believe the industry needs external pressure.
However, that trust was shaken this week when it was revealed that after a data leak a DraftKings employee won $350,000 on FanDuel.
According to Borchers, DraftKings insists the two incidents are not related, but since the revelation employees at the companies are not allowed to use the sites at all, originally they weren't allowed to play using their own sites.
Borchers wonders if the incident will be seen as a reason for more regulation.
"I think people are wondering, if it took some PR crisis to motivate you to do this thing that you say is right now, then how can we trust you to do the right thing in the future?" he said.
Borchers talked to industry lobbyists about the idea of regulations. He said they expect some increased regulation but they really hoping to avoid an outright ban of daily fantasy sports websites.
"Their point is when you do that, when just sort of ban it all together, what you're really just doing is opening the door for off-shore, unregulated entities to come in," he said.
Callum Borchers, business reporter, Boston Globe