Last week, sports gambling giant DraftKings announced that it is reviewing a former Bachelor contestant’s $1 million win in an online fantasy football contest after she and her husband were accused of cheating.
Jade Roper-Tolbert, a former contestant on the reality TV show “The Bachelor” beat more than 100,000 entries to win first place in the DraftKings’ Millionaire Maker Contest. Roper-Tolbert and her husband, Tanner Tolbert, also a former Bachelor contestant, both submitted the maximum of 150 lineups per person for the contest. However, nearly none of the couple’s entries duplicated the other’s, leading to accusations that that the couple may have colluded to increase their chances of holding the winning combination.
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins announced this week that the company is conducting an investigation into the contest to ensure that Roper-Tolbert complied with DraftKings’ terms of use, community guidelines, and applicable state regulations before it awards the prize.
Takeaway: Sponsors and promoters of contests should ensure that they have language in the official rules which permit disqualification of fraudulent content. Additionally, sponsors should ensure fraud-detection technology is in place during the duration of the promotion, and conclude no fraud has been committed before any winning announcements have been made.