Betting sites urge caution after fraudulent activity

Online sports betting operators on Monday encouraged customers to take steps to protect their accounts after several companies saw fraudulent activity in recent weeks.

DraftKings said Monday that a “small number” of betting accounts were accessed by unauthorized users, resulting in the withdrawal of nearly $300,000 in customers’ funds in an attack the company believes was caused by the theft of login information from third-party sites.

Sports betting site The Action Network reported that at least one customer had their DraftKings account closed on Sunday and had their money withdrawn from the bank account that was used to deposit sports bets.

“DraftKings is aware that some customers are experiencing irregular activity with their accounts. We currently believe that these customers’ login information was compromised on other websites and then used to access their DraftKings accounts where they used the same login information,” Paul Lieberman, co-founder said. for DraftKings, in a statement. “We have seen no evidence that DraftKings systems have been hacked to obtain this information. We have identified less than $300,000 in customer funds that were affected, and we intend to make any customer fully impacted.

“We strongly encourage customers to use unique passwords for DraftKings and all other sites, and we strongly recommend that customers do not share their passwords with anyone, including third party sites for the purposes of tracking betting information on DraftKings and other betting applications.”

Ryan Butler, a journalist covering the gaming industry, wrote on Twitter Monday that his DraftKings account had been hacked and that FanDuel sent him an email saying there had been an attempt to access his FanDuel account.

FanDuel has reported increased activity by unauthorized actors trying to access accounts, but “customers have not yet been affected,” a company spokesperson said Monday afternoon. Caesars Sportsbook also said Monday that it was not affected.

The unauthorized access to DraftKings came just weeks after several professional poker players reported unauthorized betting accounts set up in their names with BetMGM and used to withdraw funds from personal checking accounts. A well-known poker pro from California, Todd Whitliss, said someone set up a sports betting account in his name in late October in West Virginia, deposited $10,000 from his checking account into a sports betting account and withdrew $7,500 to a Venmo debit card the same day. Witteles estimates that over 50 poker players have encountered a similar problem at BetMGM which occurred mostly in late October and early November. BetMGM said it is actively investigating the situation.

“The security of our clients’ accounts is of the utmost importance to us,” a spokesperson for BetMGM said in a statement to ESPN on Friday. “We encourage any affected beneficiaries to contact our customer service department directly.”

It is unknown if the events at DraftKings and BetMGM are connected.