Fanduel: Condia lineup controversy (2 Viewers)

[Seekay]

On Saturday night Condia's NBA lineup changed after the 7:00PM (ESDT) lineup lock deadline. In his original lineup he had Jarret Jack and Tim Duncan and later those players were replaced by Goran Dragic and Taj. Gibson.

I myself didn't notice it until I heard about it, but I did check his lineup at lock cause I was interested who he might play at PG. Especially if he was playing Lillard. So I knew he originally had Collison and Jack.

Fanduel chat was a buz about this.... (word is they banned people for bringing it up) no statements were made about the subject until the following day by fanduel. They even froze payments.

Fanduel claims the lineup changes were made comfortably prior to the lineup lock. (though wont say exactly when or show logs when)

They claim their database was just getting it done and the lineup change by someone like Condia who plays Hundreds of leagues if not thousands, caused a delay in the update which they claim took minutes but others say it didnt change until the first quater was over of the 7pm game.

Fanduel claims there was "only" a 1.5 point difference between lineups, but thats besides the point really...

They want you to believe them.. trust them without proving, providing or showing anything. real money is at stake. In fact thousands... Fanduel aint the only game in town anymore. Step up and make us believe you. Who is condia and Fanduel going to make money off of when everyone leaves?

 

[(HULK)]

Condia posts here sometimes. Ask him.

 

[BoltBacker]

Fanduel chat was a buz about this.... (word is they banned people for bringing it up) no statements were made about the subject until the following day by fanduel. They even froze payments.

Fanduel claims the lineup changes were made comfortably prior to the lineup lock. (though wont say exactly when or show logs when)

They claim their database was just getting it done and the lineup change by someone like Condia who plays Hundreds of leagues if not thousands, caused a delay in the update which they claim took minutes but others say it didnt change until the first quater was over of the 7pm game.

Fanduel claims there was "only" a 1.5 point difference between lineups, but thats besides the point really...

All the bolded parts are really troubling, if true. I don't think it's unreasonable to freeze payments or make a statement until they had a chance to sort it all out, however. A controversy like this could certainly undo a lot of $ spent on marketing. You would think they would bend over backwards to make things right for everyone involved and be as transparent as possible as to when the change was made and how long it took to get the last of Condia's lineups changed.

The whole "only a 1.5 point difference" thing is particularly gross.

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

Fanduel chat was a buz about this.... (word is they banned people for bringing it up) no statements were made about the subject until the following day by fanduel. They even froze payments.

Fanduel claims the lineup changes were made comfortably prior to the lineup lock. (though wont say exactly when or show logs when)

They claim their database was just getting it done and the lineup change by someone like Condia who plays Hundreds of leagues if not thousands, caused a delay in the update which they claim took minutes but others say it didnt change until the first quater was over of the 7pm game.

Fanduel claims there was "only" a 1.5 point difference between lineups, but thats besides the point really...

All the bolded parts are really troubling, if true. I don't think it's unreasonable to freeze payments or make a statement until they had a chance to sort it all out, however. A controversy like this could certainly undo a lot of $ spent on marketing. You would think they would bend over backwards to make things right for everyone involved and be as transparent as possible as to when the change was made and how long it took to get the last of Condia's lineups changed.The whole "only a 1.5 point difference" thing is particularly gross.

Yeah, if Fanduel actually referenced that it's "only a 1.5 point difference," that's a massive blunder. The point difference is irrelevant.

I get that condia plays 50,000 contests a day or whatever. What I don't get is that whenever I've done a wholesale player change across lineups, I've always gotten a message that essentially says that it takes some time for their database to update each record, so if you try to do a player swap right before the games start, it might not hit all your lineups before they lock. So if their explanation is that he submitted the changes before lineups locked, but their database didn't update until after the lineups locked, well then his lineups shouldn't have changed, right? Once I can see my opponent's lineup (which only happens once the contest is locked) I shouldn't see any changes to it.

I don't play NBA games so I wasn't affected the other night, and I've done well playing NFL games on Fanduel so I have no motivation to drag their name through the mud or anything, but this is a big issue that they need to handle very carefully.

 

[T Bell]

Should I feel ashamed not to know what a "condia" is?

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

Should I feel ashamed not to know what a "condia" is?

Not at all. That's just the username of a guy who supposedly plays "daily fantasy sports" games (like Fanduel) for a living.

https://www.fanduel.com/users/condia

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

It's annoying enough that condia is basically in every single contest they offer. The fact he was involved in this scam but no one else was makes me question it at least a little. I do not think Fanduel handled it well at all especially downplaying the potential harm using the point differential. If condia really is an inside job at fanduel then they have been scamming a ton of money from people for a while. Between that and the ridiculous rake I am at least considering not playing there any longer.

 

[VA703]

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

If condia really is an inside job at fanduel then they have been scamming a ton of money from people for a while.

He plays a crazy amount of money on other sites, as well. I don't think this is a "scam." I think it's just a situation that Fanduel hasn't handled properly. I've been left unsatisfied by their customer service in the past, so I can't say this is entirely surprising, but with something this big I'd hope they'd do a better job getting out in front of it.

 

[Seekay]

Apprantently there was a problem with his lineup the night before too. His lineup showed having a player who hasnt played all year in the lineup but his score was calulated from a different lineup.

As the Fanduel rep said after this controvery happened.. Their servers were pushing the limit. Yet they continued as is taking in more bets made no effort to limit the amount (of condia or in general) until they could upgrade. Further their techs did a horrible job at monitoring a sitituation which they knew was becoming a issue.

Also recently the rep said once lineups are locked they cant be altered. Which is untrue as they made a previous statement that CSR and others higher on the chain have the ability to alter someone's lineup if needed to be.

Fanduel claims condia first line up only was active for a few minutes which is also untrue.

I like playing daily games as I have a group of friends who play to with me usually in leagues, but Im staying away from Fanduel from now on. So I will move on with my friends and give the next guy a try.

If it happened once.. it can and will happen again. If Im competitng against someone and they have a certain lineup. I dont want to know 15 minutes later they have a new lineup im now going against. Afterall thats the reason why lineups are show right? To see who you are up against and who they have.

 

[wazoo11]

It's annoying enough that condia is basically in every single contest they offer. The fact he was involved in this scam but no one else was makes me question it at least a little. I do not think Fanduel handled it well at all especially downplaying the potential harm using the point differential. If condia really is an inside job at fanduel then they have been scamming a ton of money from people for a while. Between that and the ridiculous rake I am at least considering not playing there any longer.

Does he post over at Rotogrinders....?

 

[The Ref]

Would anyone be that surprised if any one of these daily fantasy sites had some issues similar to the early days of online poker?

 

[E Street Brat]

Same as day 1

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

Apprantently there was a problem with his lineup the night before too. His lineup showed having a player who hasnt played all year in the lineup but his score was calulated from a different lineup.

As the Fanduel rep said after this controvery happened.. Their servers were pushing the limit. Yet they continued as is taking in more bets made no effort to limit the amount (of condia or in general) until they could upgrade. Further their techs did a horrible job at monitoring a sitituation which they knew was becoming a issue.

Also recently the rep said once lineups are locked they cant be altered. Which is untrue as they made a previous statement that CSR and others higher on the chain have the ability to alter someone's lineup if needed to be.

Fanduel claims condia first line up only was active for a few minutes which is also untrue.

I like playing daily games as I have a group of friends who play to with me usually in leagues, but Im staying away from Fanduel from now on. So I will move on with my friends and give the next guy a try.

If it happened once.. it can and will happen again. If Im competitng against someone and they have a certain lineup. I dont want to know 15 minutes later they have a new lineup im now going against. Afterall thats the reason why lineups are show right? To see who you are up against and who they have.

Yes. If there was a hardware issue they should have stopped taking bets, or limited the bets, until they upgraded. And I really don't like the dishonesty. Once they start appearing to cover things up then it becomes fair game to question anything. There are plenty of other sites out there to take a chance on instead of hoping Fanduel is honest.

 

[Slapdash]

Not sure why anyone would trust FanDuel. It is pretty annoying FBGs is pimping that site so hard honestly.

 

[Warrior]

Not sure why anyone would trust FanDuel. It is pretty annoying FBGs is pimping that site so hard honestly.

BS grab

 

[VA703]

Not sure why anyone would trust FanDuel. It is pretty annoying FBGs is pimping that site so hard honestly.

BS grab

this is what it comes down to

 

[(HULK)]

FYI, this was posted in another thread earlier this year:

On mobile so I'm not going to try to quote a bunch of replies but to answer a few of the above questions:

I'm going H2H against condia in one contest, I'm in a 50 person 50/50 with him, and the third entry was a link I happened to see someone post in the Fanduel chat window.

They're all contests that started Thursday night, obviously, which is how we're able to see the opponents' lineups.

I'm interested because condia has own tens of thousands of contests in the past 3 years or whatever it's been. I'm sure he's lost thousands upon thousands as well, obviously, but presumably he's doing well enough that he is profitable. So I'm interested in his roster strategies. Only seeing four out of his hundreds of entries isn't nearly enough but it's a glimpse at what he's doing.

I AM Condia. PM me for deets.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

Not sure why anyone would trust FanDuel. It is pretty annoying FBGs is pimping that site so hard honestly.

Why wouldn't FBG pimp it? Dodds needs to attract people over there so he can use the subscription fees here to "win" more money. Hell, by the end of the season Dodds was telling subscribers he wasn't playing anymore and he still was.

 

[Slapdash]

Not sure why anyone would trust FanDuel. It is pretty annoying FBGs is pimping that site so hard honestly.

BS grab

That money sure hasn't made its way to content. We do get more staff deleting posts though...

 

[(HULK)]

Not sure why anyone would trust FanDuel. It is pretty annoying FBGs is pimping that site so hard honestly.

Why wouldn't FBG pimp it? Dodds needs to attract people over there so he can use the subscription fees here to "win" more money. Hell, by the end of the season Dodds was telling subscribers he wasn't playing anymore and he still was.

Yup. He skipped week 16 but I've seen him playing in the weeks following.

They still produced Fanduel content though. He just stopped with his blog.

 

[Sarnoff]

Not sure why anyone would trust FanDuel. It is pretty annoying FBGs is pimping that site so hard honestly.

Why wouldn't FBG pimp it? Dodds needs to attract people over there so he can use the subscription fees here to "win" more money. Hell, by the end of the season Dodds was telling subscribers he wasn't playing anymore and he still was.

Dodds also gets a % referral bonus for all the action thru the signup links.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

We are pretty far away from the days of Joe getting all defiant about fantasy sports being gambling.

 

[[icon]]

Not sure why anyone would trust FanDuel. It is pretty annoying FBGs is pimping that site so hard honestly.

BS grab

What?

FBG is in the business of providing advice/strategy for Fantasy Football.

Fanduel is in the business of providing a place to play fantasy football.

Seems to me like it's a natural progression... FBG recognizes how huge the daily fantasy space is becoming and are looking to stake a claim as a big player in the Daily advice/projections segment... partnering with one of the big players to gain exposure is one way to do that.

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

One company entered into a marketing agreement with another company? BS MONEY GRAB

 

[Soulfly3]

Swear on my life I have witnessed this before with a Condia lineup - and was basically #### ON in the chat when brought up

He is seen as a "hero" on that site, and people in the chat blow him at every opportunity.

Whether or not he is scamming, I can;t say, but I swear Ive seen his lineup change well into a 50/50 in the past. Wish I made note of it more seriously.

He was in every game I played - and he does a solid job of winning... I dont wanna call him a cheater, because ya, it's likely a server lag, but I cant say it didnt cross my mind many times

 

[E Street Brat]

We are pretty far away from the days of Joe getting all defiant about fantasy sports being gambling.

I'm pretty sure Joe does not work here anymore

 

[Limp Ditka]

We are pretty far away from the days of Joe getting all defiant about fantasy sports being gambling.

We seem to be pretty far away from the days of Joe in general.

 

[David Dodds]

I know everyone loves a conspiracy, but here is FanDuel's official position on the matter:

https://www.fanduel.com/insider/2014/01/05/live-scoring-lineup-display-issue-resolution/

Condia is a real player. He plays heavy volume on all of the daily sites. This issue did impact more than just Condia lineups. It's not surprising that this issue was seen in his lineups since he is managing so many lineups.

David

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

Condia’s pre-edit lineup scored a total of 346.4. The updated lineup, again, submitted before game start, scored 347.5, a difference of 1.1 points. To compensate the small number of users who would have won based on the rosters they were seeing on screen, we are paying those players as if they won.

This is a very good decision.

And the explanation seems completely legit IMO.

 

[Soulfly3]

The payout smells fishy to me.

Just sayin

Show the logs that PROVE he made the changes before the deadline, and you dont have to pay out anyone, or make excuses.

Sorry... this looks worse to me

 

[David Dodds]

Not sure why anyone would trust FanDuel. It is pretty annoying FBGs is pimping that site so hard honestly.

Why wouldn't FBG pimp it? Dodds needs to attract people over there so he can use the subscription fees here to "win" more money. Hell, by the end of the season Dodds was telling subscribers he wasn't playing anymore and he still was.

Yup. He skipped week 16 but I've seen him playing in the weeks following.

They still produced Fanduel content though. He just stopped with his blog.

I skipped week 16 because my thumb was destroyed when I cut it badly. That and all the other things I had to do for the holidays, site, daughter coming into town, etc. Week 16 is the end of the year for fantasy football where I sit. I did opt to play week 17 at the last second, but that ended up being a bad decision (losing most of the contests I entered) just as I suspected it might be (very hard to predict performances when 1/2 the players are playing for nothing). I also played a small amount this week after withdrawing $90K. We will continue to produce content to beat the daily sites (that is what we do). My goal on the blog (and in playing) was to get knowledgeable and write a book. I have already started that. My book will cover thoughts/experiences through Week 16.

As for getting referral bonuses or a percent of a user's play, that is simply not true. We have a marketing deal with FanDuel, but it has nothing to do with how much a user plays/wins, etc.

 

[BassNBrew]

I know everyone loves a conspiracy, but here is FanDuel's official position on the matter:

https://www.fanduel.com/insider/2014/01/05/live-scoring-lineup-display-issue-resolution/

Condia is a real player. He plays heavy volume on all of the daily sites. This issue did impact more than just Condia lineups. It's not surprising that this issue was seen in his lineups since he is managing so many lineups.

David

Fanduel nailed this one.

If you happen to check back, can you provide a link to all the Fanduel eligible winners in the subscriber contest. 43 of the 150 are showing on the fbg results page but the other winners will have to come from prior week eliminations.

 

[David Dodds]

I know everyone loves a conspiracy, but here is FanDuel's official position on the matter:

https://www.fanduel.com/insider/2014/01/05/live-scoring-lineup-display-issue-resolution/

Condia is a real player. He plays heavy volume on all of the daily sites. This issue did impact more than just Condia lineups. It's not surprising that this issue was seen in his lineups since he is managing so many lineups.

David

Fanduel nailed this one.

If you happen to check back, can you provide a link to all the Fanduel eligible winners in the subscriber contest. 43 of the 150 are showing on the fbg results page but the other winners will have to come from prior week eliminations.

Yes we are identifying all of the FanDuel winners later tonight. I will mail an email to all of them and we are working with FanDuel to have that money loaded directly into people's corresponding FanDuel accounts. Should all be processed very soon.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

We are pretty far away from the days of Joe getting all defiant about fantasy sports being gambling.

We seem to be pretty far away from the days of Joe in general.

I never got to say goodbye.

 

[(HULK)]

Not sure why anyone would trust FanDuel. It is pretty annoying FBGs is pimping that site so hard honestly.

Why wouldn't FBG pimp it? Dodds needs to attract people over there so he can use the subscription fees here to "win" more money. Hell, by the end of the season Dodds was telling subscribers he wasn't playing anymore and he still was.

Yup. He skipped week 16 but I've seen him playing in the weeks following.

They still produced Fanduel content though. He just stopped with his blog.

I skipped week 16 because my thumb was destroyed when I cut it badly. That and all the other things I had to do for the holidays, site, daughter coming into town, etc. Week 16 is the end of the year for fantasy football where I sit. I did opt to play week 17 at the last second, but that ended up being a bad decision (losing most of the contests I entered) just as I suspected it might be (very hard to predict performances when 1/2 the players are playing for nothing). I also played a small amount this week after withdrawing $90K. We will continue to produce content to beat the daily sites (that is what we do). My goal on the blog (and in playing) was to get knowledgeable and write a book. I have already started that. My book will cover thoughts/experiences through Week 16.

As for getting referral bonuses or a percent of a user's play, that is simply not true. We have a marketing deal with FanDuel, but it has nothing to do with how much a user plays/wins, etc.

I cleaned up in Week 17. I pretty much exclusively played players who had something to play for or young guys getting a shot to prove themselves.

I think that its pretty clear that there are different strategies for different points in the season. I hope you guys delve into this more next year... early season, like weeks 1 and 2, I bet you can win fairly easily if you paid a lot of attention to preseason. Then, the strech from week 3 to 16 is probably pretty much the same. Week 17 you need a different strategy. The first 2 weeks of the playoffs, you probably need yet another strategy but I haven't figured out what it is yet (as I lost this weekend).

 

[(HULK)]

Honestly, next year, I might play pretty heavily on weeks 1 and 2, then lighten up until about week 6 or 7. Certain things become clear as the season edges on (like playing the RB facing Chicago or that midseason period where you always wanted the D playing against the Jags and/or Houston). The back half of the season was profitible for me just by following the trends that emerged like that. There are enough casual players in the mix that this makes it easy to win.

The playoff games feel more like gambling to me as there are a lot less clear slam dunks.

 

[BassNBrew]

Honestly, next year, I might play pretty heavily on weeks 1 and 2, then lighten up until about week 6 or 7. Certain things become clear as the season edges on (like playing the RB facing Chicago or that midseason period where you always wanted the D playing against the Jags and/or Houston). The back half of the season was profitible for me just by following the trends that emerged like that. There are enough casual players in the mix that this makes it easy to win.

The playoff games feel more like gambling to me as there are a lot less clear slam dunks.

Probably because the cheap QBs were gone in the playoffs.

 

[Bobcat10]

The payout smells fishy to me.

Just sayin

Show the logs that PROVE he made the changes before the deadline, and you dont have to pay out anyone, or make excuses.

Sorry... this looks worse to me

What would stop people from claiming the logs were altered? I have no issue with the way they handled it. I don't even think they owed anything to the people caught in between that 1.5pt difference, but I do believe they made the right call by paying them off anyways.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I know everyone loves a conspiracy, but here is FanDuel's official position on the matter:

https://www.fanduel.com/insider/2014/01/05/live-scoring-lineup-display-issue-resolution/

Condia is a real player. He plays heavy volume on all of the daily sites. This issue did impact more than just Condia lineups. It's not surprising that this issue was seen in his lineups since he is managing so many lineups.

David

Fanduel nailed this one.

If you happen to check back, can you provide a link to all the Fanduel eligible winners in the subscriber contest. 43 of the 150 are showing on the fbg results page but the other winners will have to come from prior week eliminations.

As David and Bass said, I thought FanDuel handled this issue as well as possible with their explanation here https://www.fanduel.com/insider/2014/01/05/live-scoring-lineup-display-issue-resolution/

I think owning the error and allowing people that faced Candia to use whichever roster scored fewer points was the right thing.

I believe they realize they have a very good business and they realize credibility with their players is the highest priority. I'd be very surprised if they would ever do something to compromise that.

And Mr PIckles and LImp Ditka, :wave: Sorry, it seems like I fell off the boards this year.

J

 

[(HULK)]

Joe/DD,

Any plans to expand the daily games content into next season?

Hugs,

Hulk

 

[Joe Bryant]

Joe/DD,

Any plans to expand the daily games content into next season?

Hugs,

Hulk

Hi Hulk,

For sure not next season. We try to never say never so we'll keep looking past that. Running a daily game is a pretty huge undertaking. And there are already some really good companies in this space. Again, never say never, but it looks to us like we'll have plenty to work on with the season long contests.

J

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

Joe, just to be clear, he mentioned content and not contests. Think there was some confusion.

 

[[icon]]

Joe, just to be clear, he mentioned content and not contests. Think there was some confusion.

I would be surprised to see FBG get into the hosting of games (ala fanduel or draftstreet), but I did notice the content gradually increased over the course of this season, which was nice.

 

[(HULK)]

Joe/DD,

Any plans to expand the daily games content into next season?

Hugs,

Hulk

Hi Hulk,

For sure not next season. We try to never say never so we'll keep looking past that. Running a daily game is a pretty huge undertaking. And there are already some really good companies in this space. Again, never say never, but it looks to us like we'll have plenty to work on with the season long contests.

J

Joe,

I meant more articles from your staff on the daily aspect of fantasy football. More stuff on various strategies, etc. Most of what you guys did this year was built around using your projections to figure out the best values and lineups each week, which was great. But I'd love more on the strategy side of the equation.

Thanks,

Hulk

 

[(HULK)]

You guys need to find the VBD equivalent for daily games. You all shook up the fantasy world with that over a decade ago... if anyones going to find the next thing, its you all. DD probably has MOUNTAINS of data to mine at this point, I'm sure you can put a couple of people on finding a few gems from that. Give us small guys the same edge a guy like Condia has. Stuff like that

 

[Joe Bryant]

Joe, just to be clear, he mentioned content and not contests. Think there was some confusion.

Thanks Aaron.

My bad. Yes, Hulk, we definitely will be expanding the content we offer for daily. It's definitely something our customers have asked for and we want to expand that coverage.

J

 

[Slapdash]

Feels like the daily content is crowding out the other stuff. Most of the pieces read like they are totally algo driven IMO.

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

The payout smells fishy to me.

Just sayin

Show the logs that PROVE he made the changes before the deadline, and you dont have to pay out anyone, or make excuses.

Sorry... this looks worse to me

How would you even know that what you were looking at was legitimate? What if they just posted a screenshot that looked like this:

Username	Contest_ID	Lineup_Submission_Timecondia        	S29137143	6:51:44 PMcondia        	S29137146	6:51:44 PMcondia        	S29137150	6:51:45 PMcondia        	S29137152	6:51:45 PM...		...             ...

Would you be like, "Oh, ok, I guess he did get his entries in on time." You either believe their explanation or you don't. If you think they're lying about what happened, then asking them to "show the logs" is silly.

 

[BoltBacker]

When Dodds and Joe post in the same thread it's nearly impossible to figure out which one of them is the real Tyler Durden.

As far as FanDuel goes I'm glad they resolved the matter in the way they did. I've always gotten prompt payouts from those guys(most important to me) and the one time I needed customer service I got a quick reply. That said, if FBG could figure out how to make $ with a lower vig and maybe a little more in depth game I'd switch in a heartbeat. Maybe IDP. Maybe best ball like the contests they run now. Something a little deeper than the competition in the market now. The current playoff contest is much appreciated.