FanDuel raises rake, DraftKings raises eyebrows as sponsored pro wins $1m

Daily fantasy sports fans are furrowing their brows after a DraftKings contractor won $1m via the site and rival FanDuel boosted its rake.

DFS pro Al Zeidenfeld placed first in DraftKing’s $5m Millionaire Maker on Sunday, netting a cool $1m for his troubles. But Zeidenfeld is a DraftKings’ sponsored pro, seemingly raising uncomfortable echoes of last fall’s ‘insider trading’ scandal that kicked off the rush to regulate DFS across the US.

But to be fair, while Zeidenfeld collects a check for promoting DraftKings, he isn’t an employee and a DraftKings rep promised Deadspin that Zeidenfeld didn’t have access to contest data or any other non-public information. As such, Zeidenfeld’s big payday isn’t likely to spark the same level of customer outrage that erupted after actual DraftKings staffer Ethan Haskell’s $350k DFS payday last fall.

A far louder hue and cry is likely to emerge as more customers – particularly high-volume players like Zeidenfeld – become aware that FanDuel has boosted the rake on many of its DFS contests.