DraftKings, FanDuel enjoy biggest weekend amid scandal, player allegations of insiders’ edge among operators

The brouhaha in daily fantasy sports may have shocked many political bigwigs, but it’s not scaring off the players. A record number of people entered the weekend tournaments for Sunday’s NFL games, according to UK-based DFS analytics provider SuperLobby.

DraftKings and FanDuel received a combined 7.1 million entries to their guaranteed prize pool tournaments, which translated to a whopping $43.6 million in entry fees.

The weekend was the first real chance for the industry to gauge the impact of the “insider trading” scandal that rocked daily fantasy sports. DFS sites offer real-money contests where users, after paying an entry fee, can choose their team and win cash prizes or lose depending on how the players perform in real-life games.

The thriving daily fantasy sports industry was rocked by a scandal last week, when reports surfaced that a DraftKings employee won $350,000 by using insider information to bet on rival FanDuel’s site, raising the possibility of an unfair advantage for employees of the sites. Employees are barred from playing on the sites they work for, but it was common for them to enter contests on other sites.