Daily fantasy site FantasyHub shut down operations in February on the hook for over $100,000 owed to customers and charities. While the owners of FantasyHub may not be able to pay back their customers for their winnings, one giant in the daily fantasy sports game is stepping up in a show of good sportsmanship. DraftKings c-founder Matt Kalish confirmed his company is not acquiring FantasyHub or adding any of its employees, but is fulfilling the obligations FantasyHub was unable to meet.

“This is not an acquisition deal or an asset purchase deal,” Kalish told ESPN. “This is a very simple deal, where we’re assigning two liabilities from [FantasyHub] over to DraftKings in an effort to do the right thing for their player base, which has a nearly 80 percent overlap with our own. We never want to see our player base got through an experience that’s negative like this.”

DraftKings and FanDuel have been the leaders in the emerging daily fantasy sports game, which has been battered and bruised on various levels in the past year. A gesture of good will like this will serve some good for the entire industry, but at the very least it is nice to see an industry leader come through and do what is right for customers in the industry. Let’s be honest though, DraftKings is probably coming to the rescue of FantasyHub because it owed so much to charitable causes. It also leaves a black eye on the industry when one company fails to make good on their financial promises.

“What happened here was reprehensible,” Kalish said. “It is a breach of trust for these players and we share a lot of these players with them. We just didn’t think it was the right thing to do to sit on the sideline and let that happen. We had the ability to step up and do something.”

DraftKings will allow FantasyHub customers to migrate their accounts over to DraftKings, which will then be handled properly by DraftKings to fulfill payouts due to customers. Here’s hoping another small company looking to cash checks in daily fantasy doesn’t get in over their heads again, because DraftKings may not come to their rescue again.

[ESPN]

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.