Spanky On DraftKings Suit: Attorney Is Sports Betting Beard Who Owes Money


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DraftKings

A professional gambler named in a lawsuit against DraftKings over missing sports betting funds gave his side of the story on social media Tuesday.

Gadoon Kyrollos, better known publicly as “Spanky”, posted his side of the story in two lengthy posts on Twitter. In a statement, DraftKings denies the accounts of the initial lawsuit and said it is moving for dismissal.

Spanky’s take turned the narrative of the lawsuit filed against DraftKings on its head. He alleges the John Doe is the filing attorney, Steven Jacobs, a man with a losing betting account that Spanky identified as a potential “beard”, or someone he could use to get bets down at DraftKings, where the professional says he is banned.

Jacobs is either a compulsive gambler or thief, Spanky alleged in his statement. Jacobs reportedly owes more than $1 million to other people, Spanky said.

Spanky denies allegations

Spanky denied most of what Jacobs alleged, including that he “never threatened Steve nor sent a ‘masked man’ to threaten him.”

He also did not have a contact to get information from DraftKings. That was a bluff, Spanky said, in order to gauge Jacobs’s response:

“… I was hopeful that if he was doing something wrong, that this bluff might encourage him to fess up.”

The professional bettor also accused Jacobs of “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” alleging Jacobs used the funds to settle another lawsuit with a $270,814 payment by Jacobs.

Spanky details sports betting scheme

Spanky used his Premium account on Twitter to make his statement on the situation.

He noted that Oscar Jones, who is listed in this case as well as another lawsuit involving Jacobs, met Jacobs through a personal connection. Jones said Jacobs was a whale bettor that could be used for their bets.

Spanky said “we” would send Jones the plays, who would forward them to Jacobs to make the bet. Who else fell under “we” was not clarified.

Jones funded the start of betting on Jacobs’s account with more than $82,000, according to Spanky.

Jacobs said DraftKings held funds

When Spanky was ready to settle with Jacobs two months later, he was told DraftKings wanted Jacobs to sign an “affidavit of eligibility.”

Jacobs was reportedly hesitant to report the issue to the New York State Gaming Commission but eventually did, blind-copying Jones on the email as proof he sent it.

Spanky and Jones were both suspicious when Jacobs told them for more than a month that he was still waiting on a response.

Recrods request filed for DraftKings emails

According to Spanky, Jones suggested using New York’s freedom of information laws to get copies of what Jacobs emailed the gaming commission.

The result included the initial email, as well as a follow-up sent five minutes later, Spanky said. The follow-up email from Jacobs reportedly said the email was a mistake because he is a gaming lawyer and was creating the email as a “gaming training module.”

A screenshot of the mistaken email accompanied Spanky’s post:

“With sincere apologies, the email/attachment below was accidental, and was not meant to be sent to you,” the body of the email from Jacobs states. “I am a gaming lawyer and I drafted it for a gaming training module. It is not a real complaint.

“I meant to include your email address in the document but not to send it to you. Please ignore and delete the email and attachment. I apologize again.”

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