On Tuesday, Andrew Melnick sued Betfair Interactive US, LLC, doing business as FanDuel Sportsbook, for allegedly providing inaccurate information to customers while they made wagers on live sporting events on FanDuel’s digital platform. The Northern District of Illinois complaint contended that users placing “Under” bets were misled by inflated game clock readings and inexact score information, causing wagers they placed to appear to be far better bets than they actually were.
The complaint explained that FanDuel operates an on-line sports gaming platform with a membership in excess of 6 million people across Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indiana, Iowa, Colorado, Tennessee, Virginia, and Michigan, where such betting is legal.
On Feb. 28, Melnick began placing wagers on the FanDuel platform focusing on men’s NCAA college basketball. Reportedly, he made live wagers on “Over/Unders,” a sportsbook wager that predicts a number in a given game, usually the combined score of the two teams. The bettor will prevail if the actual game total is either higher or lower than the platform offered over or under, the complaint explained.
Melnick made wagers after the sporting events had begun based upon FanDuel’s allegedly false reporting of the game’s remaining time and, in some cases, the current scores of the live events. After discovering the inaccuracies, Melnick purportedly contacted FanDuel customer service to notify the company and seek a refund, but to no avail. The lawsuit reported that FanDuel frequently understates the time remaining in live sporting events between 5 and 35%, causing the plaintiff and putative class members to lose money on bets that they would not have made or would have made differently had the defendant’s app reported the information accurately.
Melnick is seeking to certify a class of FanDuel users who reside in one of the ten states the company operates in and who placed an “Under” wager during a live sporting event on the FanDuel platform and app. The filing claims that through its deceptive practices, FanDuel violated state consumer protection laws, committed breaches of contract, and was unjustly enriched.
The plaintiff is represented by Voelker Litigation Group and Fox & Fox S.C.
