Plaintiff Cody Lucas, on behalf of himself and others similarly situated, filed a class action complaint against Major League Baseball for fraud. The complaint claims that the accused parties participated in an “unlawful manipulation of players’ performance statistics” spawning from a sign-stealing scandal. The case is being held in the Minnesota District Court before Judge Eric C. Tostrud. In addition to the MLB, several other defendants were named: MLB Advanced Media, LP (“MLBAM”), Sportradar, the Houston Astros, and the Boston Red Sox.
The Astros and Red Sox were accused of using sign-stealing electronic devices in 2017 and 2018; the respective years that they each won the World Series. After investigating the scandal, the MLB determined that both teams had violated the league’s official rules and regulations. The Astros were fined $5 million, and several Red Sox managers were fired.
The plaintiff is a former participant in Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) competitions, and specifically used FanDuel, an online sports betting operator. The MLB added Fanduel as one of its “authorized gaming operators,” and granted it permission to use official MLB league and team logos, and access to MLB’s official data feed. FanDuel’s participants compete by assembling virtual teams of real MLB players who play against one another. According to the complaint, “The winners of each contest are based on the statistical performance of the assembled players that the participants have selected.”
The plaintiff’s gambling success was determined by the real-world wins and losses of the MLB’s teams. He felt cheated after discovering the scandalous behavior, claiming, “By luring fans to participate in [DFS] competitions, where its constituent teams were engaging in corrupt and fraudulent conduct, the MLB undermined the fairness and integrity of DFS participants’ wagers.”
Lucas seeks an award of damages to recover the amounts of fees and wagers lost in corrupt DFS baseball wager competitions.
