DraftKings scored a partial win against former VIP head Michael Hermalyn with a temporary restraining order granted in a Massachusetts court Thursday.
The District Court of Massachusetts found DraftKings established a “likelihood of success on the merits on some of its claims” and shown it could suffer irreparable harm without a temporary restraining order.
“We are pleased that the judge granted a temporary restraining order in favor of DraftKings ordering Mr. Hermalyn not to solicit DraftKings employees or customers, and not to use any confidential company information,” a DraftKings spokesperson told LSR.
Hermalyn fired back at DraftKings on Wednesday and said the company’s accusations against him of planning to join Fanatics with DraftKings customers and confidential info in hand is false.
DraftKings gets some questions answered
There is good cause for DraftKings to get some of its questions answered as they are relevant and tailored to the claims in this action.
The company does not have good cause for the a number of other requests of documents, as that request was “overbroad and unduly burdensome at this stage,” the court found. Most of those documents Hermalyn already said he did not have, but they do come up in the 10 questions he must answer by next week. Hermalyn must:
- Describe all DraftKings documents he accessed since Jan. 1, 2024.
- Describe any instance of sharing any DraftKings documents with Fanatics since Jan. 1, 2023.
- Describe all communications had with Fanatics related to his former company since Jan. 1, 2024.
- Identify Fanatics’ VIP clients he has communicated with.
- Identify all current and former DK employees that he has spoken with about Fanatics.
Hermalyn gets a win, too
It seems Hermalyn is, at least, allowed to work at Fanatics.
The proposed temporary restraining order from DraftKings had a section that prevented him from working with Fanatics in relation to basically anything to do with sports betting and anything he worked with at DraftKings that included confidential information.
That section is crossed out on the temporary restraining order filed by the court.
The order now essentially says he cannot disclose confidential DraftKings information, nor can he delete or destroy any confidential information he may have. He also cannot have anything to do with talking to customers, clients, vendors or partners of DraftKings, nor can he reach out to any current employees to join him at Fanatics.
DraftKings IT chief to be questioned
It was not all bad news for Hermalyn as he gets to dispose chief information security officer Brian Harris over the claims Harris made to support the temporary restraining order request.
It is Harris’s team that produced a log of what confidential documents Hermalyn is alleged to have accessed between Jan. 24 and Feb. 1.
Harris said it appeared Hermalyn was physically present at Fanatics offices in Los Angeles. It also appeared he was using one of the company’s wireless networks.
His questions must be submitted to the court by next Thursday.