One of the biggest daily fantasy sports operators this side of DraftKings and FanDuel has filed for bankruptcy.
According to the filing — first reported by Fantasy Alarm — Fantasy Aces apparently used player funds for operations.
As a result of Aces filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, it appears unlikely that players with money in their accounts will receive much, if anything, as a result. Players at Aces had not been able to access their accounts for more than a week.
A visit to Fantasy Aces’ website still only tells users that an “update is coming shortly.”
What we know about Fantasy Aces’ bankruptcy
Fantasy Aces — a publicly traded company on the TSX Venture Exchange — filed for bankruptcy in the Central District of California.
You can see the filing Aces. (Legal Sports Report is publishing only the first 12 pages of a 90-page filing. Much of the rest of the filing includes names and addresses of Fantasy Aces principals and creditors owed, and is available via PACER.)
Chapter 7 is a version of bankruptcy in which a company’s assets are liquidated.
What we can glean from the filing:
- The filing was made on Tuesday.
- Aces claims it has assets of $1.8 million.
- The company claims liabilities of just under $3 million.
- A Bank of America account listed as “Players Account” has just $2,419.86 in it.
- A another account listed as “Players Account” — on PayPal — has $791.43 in it.
- One line under creditors owed called “Various User Accounts” is listed at $1.3 million.
- A number of Fantasy Aces users are listed as “nonpriority creditors.”
How and why this player accounts are nearly empty is unknown.
Bankruptcy for DFS site comes after deal falls through
Fantasy Aces had announced that it was being acquired by another operator — FantasyDraft — last week.
However, FantasyDraft backed out of that arrangement before the deal closed, citing “issues identified during our due diligence.”
Those issues are now pretty clear in retrospect. Previously, Aces had issued a corporate update about the sale, and a stop on trading of its shares had been put in place by regulators.
Fantasy Aces email
paralegal@redhilllawgroup.com
What do Fantasy Aces players do for recourse?
Fantasy Aces is under the regulatory schemes that are coming online in several states. As such, players in those states should contact those regulators to see what recourse, if any, might be available:
- New York: 518-388-3300; info@gaming.ny.gov
- Mississippi: info@mgc.state.ms.us
- Maryland: 410-260-4055; aklase@comp.state.md.us.
- Massachusetts: http://www.mass.gov/ago/contact-us.html
The latest DFS site to go insolvent
This is not the first case of a DFS operator apparently dipping into player funds for operational purposes.
In 2016, other operators acquired at least two other sites in bailouts:
- DraftKings bailed out FantasyHub.
- iTEAM Network bailed out FantasyUp. (The former also closed later on, but was not insolvent.)