New Litigation Cases Filed

Voelker Represents Bettor in Suit Against FanDuel

By on March 10, 2021,

Dan Voelker of Voelker Litigation Group is representing Andrew Melnick, who brought suit March 9, 2021 against the online sports betting company FanDuel, accusing their gambling app of delaying scores to entice losing bets.

For more information, please read the news excerpts below – and check back soon for updates.

FanDuel Accused of Delaying App Scores to Entice Losing Bets

Peter Hayes, Reporter. March 2, 2021

FanDuel was sued in federal court Tuesday by a user of the gambling app, who says the platform delays real-time scoring data and causes bettors to lose more money.

“While purporting to provide its customers with real-time, live sports game data, FanDuel regularly understates the time remaining in live sporting events to induce its customers to make wagers they are more likely to lose” than if they were being provided accurate, real-time information, the complaint alleges.

The proposed class action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges the online gambling company engages in unfair and deceptive trade practices. The complaint alleges violations of various states’ consumer protection laws.

Andrew Melnick alleges he made a number of wagers that the combined score of two competing men’s college NCAA basketball teams would be less than a given number based on the information provided on the FanDuel platform, known in gambling parlance as the “under.”

Although the time remaining in the game is “critical to the determination of the risk and reward associated with a given wager,” he later learned that the time is “frequently materially understated on the real-time display on the FanDuel platform,” the complaint alleges.

Read the full story at BloombergLaw.com…

Class Action Claims Online Sports Betting App FanDuel Deceived Users

by Christina Tabacco March 3, 2021

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 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.

The filing claims that through its deceptive practices, FanDuel violated state consumer protection laws, committed breaches of contract, and was unjustly enriched.

Read the full story at LawStreetMedia.com…

ILLINOIS MAN FILES SUIT AGAINST FANDUEL ON CLAIM OF ‘MISLEADING’ LIVE BETTING INFO

by Brad Allen, MARCH 3, 2021

The suit reads in part:

“After placing a number of the live Wagers, made after the start of the particular sporting events, and losing over $50, Plaintiff discovered that the purportedly real-time information provided to him on the FanDuel platform was repeatedly false and materially so.”

It said the platform frequently understated the time remaining in NCAA basketball games by 5-35%. That made live unders appear to be a far better bet than they actually were, Melnick said.

“As a result of the above-mentioned deceptive, dishonest and unfair pattern and practices of FanDuel, Plaintiff and, upon information and belief,
hundreds of thousands of other members of FanDuel, have lost millions of dollars in wagers.”

Is there any evidence?
As evidence, the suit includes two screenshots of the New Orleans v. Incarnate Word college basketball game on FanDuel on March 1, 2021. The first image at 8:52 pm shows six minutes left in the game. The second image, taken one minute later, shows eight minutes left in the game.

What does Melnick want?
The class-action suit calls for unspecified damages and wagers to be repaid to Melnick and “thousands” of others. It was filed by Chicago-based attorney Voelker Litigation Group. The filing also calls for FanDuel to stop operating until its app accurately reflects the time remaining in a given live sporting event.

The Flutter-owned brand is the largest US sportsbook in the market, with about 40% online share. That included more than than $6 billion in stakes at FanDuel Sportsbook in 2020.

Quick data is key for betting industry
Sports law professor Ryan Rodenberg said the suit highlighted the importance of accurate real-time data for the integrity of the betting market.  “This lawsuit also shows why a single source of real-time information has huge integrity risks,” Rodenberg said.

The NCAA of course does not have an official betting data partner. That means data scouts are likely “scouting” off the TV feed or a stream rather than being in-stadium. That can bring significant delays. COVID has arguably worsened this issue, with no fans and therefore scouts in stadiums.

What next for FanDuel case?
As for the case, the first hurdle for Melnick will be whether he can avoid the mandatory arbitration clause in the FanDuel terms of use.

“There are a lot of interesting aspects to this case,” Rodenberg said. “But FanDuel will focus on the arbitration clause to try to make sure the interesting aspects never proceed.”

Saiber attorney Jeremy Kleiman also said it was difficult to predict an outcome. “This could have been a one-time glitch with the data feed, rather than a pattern and practice of intentional deception,” Kleiman said. “It’s hard to say where this goes.”

The Illinois sports betting market began using mobile apps in 2020.

Read the full story at LegalSportsReport.com…

Bettor alleges FanDuel understated time remaining on in-game wagers

By Michael Bartlett, March 3, 2021

Class action lawsuit seeks millions in damages across 10 states.
A sports bettor in Illinois filed on March 2 a class action lawsuit against Betfair Interactive US, LLC, dba FanDuel Sportsbook alleging it misstated the time remaining in games.

In the suit, a copy of which was obtained by Gaming America, Andrew Melnick said he downloaded the app for FanDuel on his Android smartphone on 26 February and deposited $100 into his account the same day. On 28 February, Melnick began placing bets on college basketball games. His wager of choice was live wagers on under bets, meaning the actual final score of a given game would be less than the over/under number posted by the sportsbook.

The suit notes FanDuel’s betting platform purports to display on the user’s phone the time elapsed, score and the odds of a given wager in a given sporting event on a real-time basis.

But Melnick alleges the supposed real-time was “repeatedly false and materially so.”

The suit includes screen shots of the New Orleans v. Incarnate Word NCAA men’s college basketball game on 1 March; the first at 8:52pm and the second a minute later at 8:53pm. The first shows six minutes remaining in the second half of the game, while the second shows eight minutes remaining in the second half of the same game.

Melnick is represented by two attorneys based in Chicago: Daniel J. Voelker, Voelker Litigation Group, and Randall B. Gold, Fox & Fox.

Gaming America reached out to FanDuel but the company declined to comment. FanDuel has yet to file an official response.

Read the full story at GamingAmerica.com…

FanDuel Misleads Bettors With False ‘Real Time’ Info, Class Action Lawsuit Asserts

By Christina Davis, March 3, 2021

Online sports betting company FanDuel has been hit with a class action lawsuit claiming it provided bettors with inaccurate scores and game times, inducing wagers based on false information.

Melnick, an Illinois resident, claims that he and others were duped into thinking they were placing much more advantageous bets based on the false information provided by FanDuel on its sports betting app that purports to provide “real time” information to bettors.

He says that he made an “over/under” bet in February of this year on FanDuel concerning a men’s NCAA college basketball game. Melnick says that he placed a bet based on the remaining game time information provided on FanDuel; however, he later found out that the game time information provided by the online betting company was off by up to 35 percent from the actual time.

Read the full story at TopClassActions.com…

The FanDuel False Information Class Action Lawsuit is Melnick v. Betfair Interactive US, LLC, Case No. 1:21-cv-01178, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division.

How Sports Betting Impacts State Budgets

A Bloomberg Law video

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Class actions ask court to void workers’ comp lawsuit loans, order Oasis, E-Z Case Loans to repay borrowers

By on April 22, 2020,

By Jonathan Bilyk
pubished January 8, 2020

Two third-party litigation financing companies have been targeted by class actions, accusing them of “loan sharking” and issuing illegal loans.

On Jan. 6, attorney Daniel J. Voelker, of Chicago, filed two lawsuits on behalf of two different named plaintiffs, taking aim at prominent lawsuit financiers Oasis Legal Finance and E-Z Case Loans.

The lawsuits center on the lenders’ alleged practices surrounding loans for people pressing workers’ compensation claims for injuries allegedly sustained while on the job.

Named plaintiffs include Jami Kaplan, against Oasis, and Dawn Wilczak, against E-Z Case Loans.

Oasis and E-Z each specialize in providing loans to people seeking to bring personal injury and workers’ comp lawsuits. The loans act as an advance on court awards or settlements the plaintiffs expect to receive from their cases.

“Behind on your bills? Waiting for your case to settle? Let EZ Case Loans help,” reads copy on E-Z’s website.

“Life won’t wait for your settlement. Neither should you,” reads copy on Oasis Legal Finance’s website.

According to the lawsuits, however, each of the companies allegedly “preys upon persons who have been injured on the job and are in the midst of a dispute with their employer” and then charges those taking out their settlement anticipation loans “outrageous and unlawful interest rates.”

“Litigation funding is one of the newest areas of loan sharking by some unscrupulous lenders … seeking to make excessive profits by making unlawful loans to vulnerable persons in need of short-term funding to survive during the pendency of litigation,” the plaintiffs assert in their nearly identical lawsuits.

According to the complaints, both Kaplan and Wilczak each took out a loan from their respective lenders for $1,000, with an annual interest rate beginning at 36%.

“However, as the loan was due upon the settlement of the underlying workers’ compensation claim or action if the proceeds or payment was made (by the plaintiffs) sooner than one year, the interest rate charged (by Oasis or E-Z) could potentially be as high as 13,140%, or as low as 36%,” the plaintiffs said in their complaints.

According to the lawsuits, the litigation lenders require borrowers to sign over an amount equal to the loan, plus interest, of any award they may receive from their workers’ comp actions.

Read the full article at CookCountyRecord.com…

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