DraftKings has decided to strip two former "Bachelor" contestants of the $1 million prize after accusations that they colluded to win the site's "Millionaire Maker" contest during the NFL's Wild-Card Weekend.
Jade Roper Tolbert and husband Tanner Tolbert each entered the maximum allowable 150 entries in the contest. Users immediately accused the couple of combining their efforts, which is against community guidelines, to greatly increase their chance of winning.
The winning lineup came under scrutiny when users noticed that Roper Tolbert's lineups included primarily quarterbacks who played in Saturday's AFC wild-card games, while her husband's were built mostly around NFC signal-callers. An SI.com report at the time noted that the entries included 298 unique lineups.
"DraftKings has decided to update the standings for several contests," the Boston-based company said in a statement posted to its Twitter feed. "All customers affected by the updated standings will be notified directly. It is our general policy not to comment further on such matters."
Roper Tolbert finished fourth on the 19th season of "The Bachelor" and met her husband on the spin-off show "Bachelor in Paradise."
Her lineup was the winner out of 105,883 total entries in the competition. Her team had 180.78 points to top the 178.16 of the runner-up.
The site now lists an unidentified player under the DraftKings screen name spclk36 as the $1 million winner.
The company withheld paying out competitors in the contest while it conducted an investigation into the accusations.
The site's rules prohibit players from "colluding with any other individual(s) or engaging in any type of syndicate play" and allows players to have only one account.
DraftKings does not allow players to engage in "team-building complementary lineups which serve to work together AND executing a strategy that may create any unfair advantage over individual play."
The site's terms and conditions also could complicate an attempt to change the ruling through a legal challenge. By agreeing to the site's terms, players consent to accepting arbitration to resolve any legal dispute.
It is the first time DraftKings has taken away a $1 million daily fantasy prize.
