DraftKings Inc. said Monday that some customers are "experiencing irregular activity" with their accounts, but that there is no evidence the company's systems have been breached and that they intend to make it up to affected users.
The Twitter account for DraftKings customer support tweeted about the problem on Sunday night, suggesting users were having major headaches with their accounts at one of the biggest online sports betting sites in the United States.
“We are aware of reports of customers having issues with their accounts, and we are investigating,” the tweet said. “If any customers are having issues with their accounts, please contact Customer Experience Team at support@draftkings.com.”
The DraftKings tweet was replied to by several people claiming their accounts had been hacked and that funds had been stolen. There were also a few reports of money being deposited into a DraftKings account and then funds being withdrawn without a user's consent.
We are aware of reports of customers having issues with their accounts, and we are investigating. If any customers are having issues with their accounts, please contact Customer Experience Team at support@draftkings.com
— DraftKings CX Team (@DK_Assist) November 21, 2022
But DraftKings issued a statement from one of its executives Monday afternoon that suggested the negative effects were limited and promised to "make whole" customers who had been affected.
“DraftKings is aware that some customers are experiencing irregular activity with their accounts," said Paul Liberman, a DraftKings co-founder and president of global technology and product for the company. "We currently believe that the login information of these customers was compromised on other websites and then used to access their DraftKings accounts where they used the same login information. We have seen no evidence that DraftKings’ systems were breached to obtain this information. We have identified less than $300,000 of customer funds that were affected, and we intend to make whole any customer that was impacted."
Liberman added that they "strongly encourage customers to use unique passwords for DraftKings and all other sites, and we strongly recommend that customers do not share their passwords with anyone, including third party sites for the purposes of tracking betting information on DraftKings and other betting apps."
Not ideal
Even with the damage limited, the timing is not ideal for DraftKings, as the issue has arisen as the Boston-based bookmaker is preparing to launch online sports betting in Maryland on Wednesday, and in Ohio and Massachusetts in the New Year.
Shares of DraftKings were down more than 9% as of around noon on Monday on the Nasdaq stock exchange. However, by approximately 2:30 p.m. ET, DraftKings shares were only down around 4.7%.
Covers will update this story as more information becomes available.
