Former DraftKings Vice President of Growth Michael Hermalyn says the allegations DraftKings made in a Tuesday suit against him for giving confidential info to rival Fanatics is part of its pattern of disparaging former employees.
“DraftKings — a large public company — has invoked its go-to playbook to trash [me] in a transparent attempt to ruin [me] professionally and personally,” his attorneys said in a motion Wednesday afternoon in Boston federal court opposing a restraining order that would prevent him from working in a similar capacity for Fanatics.
“I knew from past experience with DraftKings that they would likely come after me aggressively and malign me as they have done with others,” he said.
The main reference is to the way DraftKings CEO Jason Robins trashed former DraftKings Chief Business Officer Ezra Kucharz when he left in August to form become President of Tull Investment Group, three industry sources believed.
Robins after Kucharz resigned let it be known in the sports betting industry that it was Kucharz who was pushing him to make a rival bid last year for PointsBet’s U.S. operations after PointsBet had reached a deal with Fanatics.
“Ezra Kucharz was a valued member of the DraftKings’ executive team. The claims made by unnamed sources for this story are completely false,” a DraftKings spokesperson said.
DraftKings made a $195 million offer topping the Fanatics bid.
Then Fanatics increased its original $150 million proposal to $225 million and bought the division giving it hard-to-obtain sports betting licenses in eight states including New York.
In actuality, Kucharz recommended against making the offer for PointsBet’s U.S. business and it was Robins who pushed for the losing bidding war, two sports betting executives familiar with the situation said.
“[The DraftKings suit] is based on salacious allegations designed to achieve DraftKings’ public relations objective of imposing maximum damage to Hermalyn’s reputation and livelihood,” he said in the Wednesday filing. “The lack of merit to DraftKings’ made-for-media hit piece is revealed most plainly in the patchwork of falsehoods, exaggerations, and allegations made “upon information and belief” that DraftKings principally relies on,” the filing alleges.
DraftKings accused Hermalyn of downloading DraftKings’ Super Bowl 2024 business plans before taking off for a meeting with future employee Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin “in concert with Fanatics.”
“Jason acts like a kid when people leave,” a top sports league executive who knows Hermalyn and doesn’t believe the allegations, told The Post. “This is Jason being Jason.”
Hermalyn ensured he was no longer in possession of any DraftKings property or confidential information and would take none to his new employer, according to the Wednesday filing.
The DraftKings lawsuit also alleges that Hermalyn secretly met with Rubin before last year’s Super Bowl and encouraged other DraftKings employees to do so as well.
“There was no secret plan to steal or use information or to solicit customers or employees, much less a year-long plan,” Hermalyn said in the filing.
A feud has existed between Rubin and Robins since 2021 when the two were in secret merger talks, The Post reported exclusively last year.
They were far along in discussions about what would have been a 50-50 merger with each company valued at about $24 billion, sources said, but Rubin walked away near the end of the process, the sources said.
Fanatics and Kucharz declined comment for this story.
