This Week In Fantasy: FanDuel Fallout With Stat Provider Is No Sunday Funday | 10/14

In the dawn of fantasy sports, commissioners of season-long leagues would bust out the box scores and fire up the abacus in a dedicated effort to correctly distribute the rightful fantasy points earned per player in order to determine the week’s winners, losers, high scores, and every minute detail in between. This week in fantasy, we were revisited by the retro age of scoring before DFS was even a thing, and the blessing of the internet along with it.

FanDuel Stat Provider Fallout Burns Users, Twitter Explodes

In what would typically be considered the busiest day of the week by route of Daily Fantasy Sports, NFL Sunday Week 5 for the excess of 8.5 million users on FanDuel was anything but a “Sunday funday” as their stat provider endured a massive outage, in turn reeking havoc on late-swap features and other options which lit the money of many on proverbial fire in the worst way possible.

With no means of tracking fantasy scores outside of manually adding up live stats (and who wouldn’t want to spend their Sunday behind a ten-key and pencil?), FanDuel users were left with but one outlet for Sunday’s weekly festivities, and that was to convey their frustrations. And just as we do with any other societal woes, the affected masses took to Twitter to let their vehemency be known (and clinging to any possible reason why they didn’t have Chase Claypool).

NFL Sunday contests have now been finalized and paid out, and MNF contests will be paid out today. We apologize for the delay in settling CFB, NASCAR, and MLB contests, our team is working hard on finalizing and paying out those contests as soon as possible.

— FD Customer Support (@FanDuel_Support) October 13, 2020

But Sunday did not mark the end of the festivities…

https://twitter.com/WA_vball/status/1316172650604040194?s=20

How about you let me play in your contests today and I’ll work really hard to get you the entry fees soon and appreciate your understanding in that delay.

Sounds stupid when it’s the other way around, no?

— Fantasy Sports (@4fantasysports) October 13, 2020

Anyone not receiving lossback credits will receive a voucher to this weekend's Sunday Million. Thanks again for your patience, crediting should be complete in the coming hours!

— FD Customer Support (@FanDuel_Support) October 14, 2020

With a gesture of paying back up to 50% of net losses to Sunday’s Week 5 participants, the compensation is far less than one can compound into a formal grievance on behalf of daily fantasy players, most notably those who invest countless hours and dollars into their efforts leading up to Sundays (or any day for that matter).

As there have been suggestions as to what did indeed happen behind the scenes between FanDuel and their elusive stat provider (Opta), the takeaway for users remains concretely just: it’s not a good look. While concerning themselves with the next James Harrison or Jeff Fisher to incorporate into their bombardment of advertising, the backend investments that go the distance insuring a coveted user experience have been evident third-rate priorities suddenly bubbling to the surface.

You have handled this situation horribly. It shows your companies stance on what is important and what is not. It’s clear that doing what is right and taking care of your customer is not a priority. No transparency, I closed my account today and will never use FanDuel again.

— Nick Warra (@NickWarra) October 14, 2020

I feel like I’m in a bad relationship.

— Thomas Alexander (@talexanderpnett) October 14, 2020

Gonna feel good playing nothing but @DraftKings from now on. They have better contest anyways!

— Eric (@DFSgambler) October 14, 2020

As of Wednesday morning, there’s a statement posted on the FanDuel website proclaiming that the problems with the stat provider are solved. Also today, if you do happen to be a current active participant on FanDuel, you may notice your account balance randomly jumping up a few bucks as well.

But now we’ll have to wait and see how smoothly things are handled going forward with the second-ranked site among DFS gaming providers. Unless you’re among the many who are fed up to the point of going elsewhere with no turning back. With Monkey Knife Fight absorbing FantasyDraft to take over the No. 3 spot, the ever-growing sea of competitor companies is inching closer and picking up the customers who’ve run out of patience.

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