- FanDuel’s daily fantasy sports (DFS) application crashed about 90 minutes before NFL kickoff on Sunday, leaving customers unable to edit their lineups.
- DFS competitor DraftKings took a shot at FanDuel for not addressing their error and said that “we’ve noticed other companies just don’t care.”
- FanDuel finally acknowledged their site error roughly 27 hours after the crash, reportedly issuing players a refund in expiring site credits.
NEW YORK – The FanDuel DFS app crashed roughly 90 minutes before NFL Kickoff, leaving players unable to edit their lineups or join contests for Week 1. Even with these contests worth millions of dollars, FanDuel ran them as normal and didn’t issue a statement until 2 p.m. ET on Monday.
Their main competitor, DraftKings, took note of FanDuel’s disastrous start to the NFL season before FanDuel issued an apology or acknowledged their error. DraftKings said what most FanDuel players and every DFS player felt: they don’t care.
Your DFS home should probably be somewhere that treats DFS like it matters.
We’ve noticed other companies just don’t care. We’re not shocked.
Biggest prize pools. More ways to play. Better customer service. Always choose DraftKings 👑— DraftKings (@DraftKings) September 14, 2026
DraftKings acknowledged their opposition’s shortcomings while FanDuelcontinued to post about NFL games, essentially pretending nothing happened. That was until 2 p.m. ET on Monday, far past 24 hours since their app crashed, when FanDuel posted about the situation on their customer support account.
To our DFS customers – we acknowledge that yesterday’s site issue was unacceptable. NFL Week 1 is supposed to be a joyous time, and we fumbled. The team investigated the issue and has now refunded the net losses to our impacted customers. We remain committed to offering you a…— FanDuel Customer Support (@FanDuel_Support) September 14, 2026
While DFS players flooded FanDuel social media with question regarding their contests on Sunday, FanDuel continued to ignore the problem, even posting “What was your standout moment from Week 1 NFL Sunday?” Almost every reply bashed FanDuel for their tone-deaf post by referencing their disastrous site crash, with the top two replies reading: “How is it even legal for you guys to continue to ignore what happened yesterday,”, and another that said “Not being able to edit my lineups 2 hours before kick with your DFS site crashing and absolutely 0 public announcement that your platform completely botched week 1 and stole money from millions of people.”
How Did FanDuel Compensate Their Players? They Barely Did
FanDuel’s DFS app crashing around 11:30 ET on the biggest day in the football DFS season surely warranted plenty of compensation, right? Far from it.
In short, FanDuel’s site went down during the biggest legal sports betting window for DFS players, the contests ran as if nothing happened, and then they “refunded the net losses” in the form of a non-withdrawable expiring site credit to bet within seven days.
The expiring bonus cash means players can treat Week 2 like its Week 1, but that’s the absolute bare minimum. No Monday Night Football contest entries? No bonus bets? Just money back and nothing else, but that money must be used on FanDuel within seven days or it’s gone. If you’re one of those affected by the site crash, why would you ever want to play at FanDuel again?
