Ryan Cristman, 35, of Ferndale is suing DraftKings, an online sports betting operator, and seeking class action status claiming they are cheating gamblers out of their winnings. Cristman, who is photographed at home on Friday, June 4, 2021; says that he made a bet in February against the Bruins and after making a screen shot of the winnings, DraftKings informed him that he did not win. Credit: Detroit Free Press

The ongoing DraftKings hacker case entered another phase on Monday as an update on the proceedings was provided.

Writer Mike Mazzeo reported on the latest update from the case based in the state of New York.

The criminal complaint for defendants Nathan Austad and Kamerin Stokes was officially unsealed, a release from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York read. The two were arrested in connection “with a scheme to hack user accounts at a fantasy sports and betting website and sell access to those accounts in order to steal hundreds of dollars for them,” the update read.

The update also stated that one of the defendants had committed the hack while both defendants were involved in the sale of that access.

This is not the first time that DraftKings has dealt with a hack that became national news. In 2022, a Wisconsin teenager committed fraud that, according to CNBC, “drained money from about 1,600 customer accounts.”

Sports gambling has become a hot topic around the country. The recent run of expanded accessibility has created both a happening business and troubling situations. The sports world has seen a predictable run of gambling controversies and scandals run amok. As gambling continues to infiltrate the marketplace, especially on the sports media side, it will become harder to ignore. And also may turn into a more pervasive concern.

[Mike Mazzeo]

About Chris Novak

Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022