The legal team at DraftKings is certainly staying busy.
Last week, a Massachusetts judge denied DraftKings’ motion to dismiss a class action filed by two residents, Shane Harris and Melissa Scanlon, working with the Public Health Advocacy Institute.
MA judge says case against bonus promotion can move to discovery
The gist of the lawsuit is that DraftKings is in violation of state consumer protection laws for the way it presented its $1,000 sign-up bonus. The plaintiffs noted that in order to maximize the bonus, customers needed to deposit $5,000 and wager through $25,000 over the course of 90 days.
DraftKings scored a victory early on, successfully relocating the case from the Massachusetts Superior Court of Middlesex County to the state’s Business Litigation court.
The two groups presented oral arguments on the merits of the case in late July. Then, on Aug. 21, Judge Debra A. Squires-Lee delivered her response, siding with the plaintiffs that the case should move forward.
Squires-Lee rejected DraftKings’ argument that the plaintiffs had not adequately described the injury or loss they experienced from the deposit.
“These allegations plausibly suggest that they were harmed because they bought into a service worth less than they believed based on the promotion,” she wrote. The judge also concluded that she needed more information about how the promotion was presented and depicted in order to fully decide if the practices were deceptive or not.
The case will now move to the discovery phase.
DraftKings dealing with several legal battles
The case is one of several on DraftKings’ plate right now.
In July, a Massachusetts District Court denied DraftKings’ motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit arguing that the company’s NFT Marketplace and Reignmaker products constituted unregulated securities. Once it was clear the case would be moving forward, DraftKings announced its decision to shutter its NFT products.
That decision led to another court case filed last week. The NFL Player’s Association (NFLPA) filed a suit against DraftKings for anticipated breach of contract since DraftKings allegedly refuses to pay the remainder of its deal with the NFLPA for licensing player images and likenesses for the NFT Marketplace.
This week, plaintiff Steven Jacobs is expecting to respond to DraftKings’ motion to dismiss a lawsuit he brought against the company, who he claimed helped two professional bettors, Oscar Jones and Gadoon “Spanky” Kyrollos, threaten and attempt to extort him.
If that weren’t a busy enough agenda, a case where DraftKings is the plaintiff continues to be active in three separate courts. DraftKings sued former head of VIP Mike Hermalyn and his new employer, Fanatics, for breach of contract. That case is active in the Massachusetts District Court, a state court in California and the First Circuit Court of Appeals, where Hermalyn is appealing the partial injunction granted by the lower court.
One case that won’t be moving forward is another class action similar to the one brought by Harris and Scanlon. Samantha Guery had filed a class action suit in the New York Southern District Court over the advertising of its sign-up offer. The case was voluntarily dropped by the plaintiff after she ceased communicating with her representation.
