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                      -- DraftKings employees big win raises doubts about transparency, integrity

"An early release of lineup information in a DraftKings contest is raising questions about the transparency of the burgeoning daily fantasy industry.

Users in online forums are asking whether a DraftKings employee might have used information about lineups to win $350,000 in a competing contest on the FanDuel site. The information detailed the percentages of entrants who selected certain fantasy players.

The release, which the employee said was inadvertent, comes at a time when the daily fantasy industry is booming and DraftKings and FanDuel are spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising, which touts the ability of contest winners to get rich playing daily fantasy sports.

It also comes at a time when there are still gray areas surrounding the legality of the contests and no independent oversight over how the contests are run and whether everyone who enters is on a level playing field.

There are no allegations -- or evidence -- that the DraftKings employee used information about the percentage of players who drafted certain players in last week's contest to finish in second place in the NFL Sunday Million contest run by FanDuel. The contest, which cost $25 to enter, featured $5 million in cash winnings, including $1 million to the winner.

A DraftKings spokesman acknowledged that employees of both companies have earned sizable prizes playing at other daily fantasy sites. On Tuesday, FanDuel issued a statement saying employees from both DraftKings and its site have temporarily been banned from "participating in online fantasy sports contests for money."

"We are temporarily restricting employees from participating in DFS contests as an interim measure while we work with the fantasy industry to develop and implement a more formal policy," the statement said.

But it is no secret in the daily fantasy industry that the kind of information the employee tweeted out could be used to draft fantasy teams that include players that aren't in widespread use in any given contest. If those players perform well, the odds of the person holding them winning go up dramatically."