Fantasy Football Website Worker is Sacked After Cheating Scandal
Posted on: January 29, 2024, 12:55h.
Last updated on: February 3, 2024, 01:01h.
An unnamed employee was fired recently after he allegedly altered a National Fantasy Football Championship (NFFC) Post-Season Hold ‘Em online game.
The worker is accused of making changes to benefit a contest participant after the game began, according to ESPN.
The NFFC launched an inquiry after it was alerted about the scandal.
We successfully revealed a post-deadline move in one of our NFFC Post-Season Hold ‘Em contests that was detected and quickly confirmed, resulting in SportsHub being able to take immediate action to resolve the issue without any impact to the results of the contest,” NFFC founder Greg Ambrosius was quoted by ESPN.
NFFC is run by the parent company SportsHub.
Beyond the employee getting fired, the unnamed contest participant was banned from further online play.
The lineup was changed by putting in a player who scored a touchdown, according to the New York Post. The participant allegedly swapped a player in the wild card and divisional rounds of the playoffs, according to ESPN. He switched Miami Dolphins running back Raheem Mostert for Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones.
He also changed Kansas City Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice for Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce.
Changes Were Accidental?
At first, the employee claimed he made the changes manually by accident. But that explanation made no sense, according to the company.
One of the participants, Pete Overzet, said a group of participants discovered the irregularity in the game.
“It wouldn’t have stood out unless you were intimately familiar with how that contest works,” Overzet explained to ESPN. “I think this is incredibly damaging [to the fantasy industry] … we’re in an era where people want to jump to conspiracy theories. Now, not only do you know that it can occur, but it did occur, I think that’s going to spread the seeds of distrust.”
Worker’s Life Ruined
Ambrosius told NBC News he texted the fired worker.
His life has been ruined. His dream job is gone. He’s let everyone down,” Ambrosius added. “He’s let his kids, who he loves more than anything in this world, down. He let his wife, who he has been with since high school, down.”
Ambrosius told the ex-employee, “we all loved him, and we all wanted to help him.
“He was so ashamed of what he did, so embarrassed that he couldn’t talk to me,” Ambrosius revealed.
The contest led to a $150K first prize. Some 1,521 participants took part.
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