DraftKings has agreed to pay a $200,000 civil penalty after being charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for selectively disclosing material, nonpublic information to investors via CEO Jason Robins’ social media accounts.
Within its release, the SEC noted that since the same information wasn’t disclosed to all investors, this violated Regulation Fair Disclosure, so a civil penalty was issued to DraftKings to settle the charges.
In an order dated 26 September, the SEC stated that on 27 July 2023, DraftKings’ public relations firm published a post on Robins’ personal X and LinkedIn accounts.
The X post read: “There’s massive potential for growth in new markets — but we’re still seeing really strong growth in existing states. Our 2018-2019 state vintage grew over 80% on the revenue basis year-over-year in Q1. With those numbers, we expect robust growth even without new states opening.”
A similar statement was also published on the DraftKings CEO’s personal LinkedIn account on the same day. Yet, at the time of those posts, the operator hadn’t published its second quarter 2023 financial results, nor had it otherwise publicly disclosed certain information contained in the posts.
Shortly after the posts were published, the public relations firm removed both posts at the request of DraftKings.
Following an SEC investigation, DraftKings was charged with violations of Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act and Regulation FD.
The order stated that even though DraftKings was required by Regulation FD to promptly disclose the information to all investors after it was selectively disclosed to some, the information was not disclosed to the public until seven days later when the operator’s Q2 2023 financials were published.
“Information about growth in sales as a public company can be extremely important to investors,” commented John Dugan, Associate Director for Enforcement in the SEC’s Boston Regional Office.
“It is essential that, when companies disseminate material, nonpublic information, they do so fairly to all investors.”
The SEC added that “while companies can use social media outlets to announce key information in compliance with Regulation FD, investors must first have been alerted about which social media will be used to disseminate such information”.
“Without admitting or denying the order’s findings, DraftKings agreed to cease and desist from future violations of the charged provisions, pay the civil penalty referenced above, and comply with certain undertakings, including required Regulation FD training for employees who have corporate communications responsibilities,” read the SEC’s statement.
Another week has passed and an abundance of slot releases have hit the CasinoBeats inbox. Put your feet up as we guide you through a selection of what the industry has to offer, including 4ThePlayer’s Dream Drop dog show, a shrunken slot from Wazdan’s staple slot series and SYNOT Games’ royal release.
Slot of the Week
5 Doggy Millionaires Dream Drop – 4ThePlayer
Crazy canines have returned to the reels in 4ThePlayer’s latest slot 5 Doggy Millionaires Dream Drop, which implemented Relax Gaming’s progressive jackpots to claim the latest Slot of the Week title.
With players hoping to claim jackpot prizes via a special Dream Drop bonus wheel, 5 Doggy Millionaires Dream Drop is a 5×4 reel slot with 1,024-ways to win and a maximum win of up to x5,000 the player’s stake. The slot has medium-high volatility with an RTP of 96%.
Henry McLean, Co-Founder, Commercial and Marketing Director at 4ThePlayer, commented: “We’re thrilled to unleash 5 Doggy Millionaires Dream Drop! With the return of our beloved dogs, the excitement of Relax’s Dream Drop Jackpot, and the fan-favourite money ways mechanic, it’s truly the paw-fect combination for players.”
Low and high value symbols, as well as wilds, can appear with prize bone embellishments. These prize bones come with different levels of prizes ranging from x2.2 to x200, depending on the reels that they land in.
Landing winning combinations that involve symbols with prize bones on them will award the prize value of the bone to the player’s payout. Additionally, dog bowl collect scatters can appear, collecting all prize bone values present on the reels and awarding them to the player.
Landing three or more respin trophies at once will trigger the respin game mode, awarding three spins for players to land as many prize bone dog symbols on an empty reel set as possible.
Additionally, ‘prize’ scatter symbols are included, with three prize scatters on the same spin triggering the Dream Drop bonus game, in which players can win one of five jackpot prizes.
Wild tennis balls can also drop into play, substituting for all aforementioned symbols but not for the pick-me kennels, collect scatters, respins trophies or cash bones.
With the respins bonus game mode, players are given three spins to land as many dogs with prize bone symbols on the reels as possible. Each symbol that drops into play will reset the number of spins to three.
Once all spins have been played out, the player will receive the sum of all prize value bones on the board.
When activating the Dream Drop bonus game, players gain one spin of the Dream Drop wheel that will award one of five progressive jackpot prizes.
Moreover, a random frisbee feature can occur in the base game mode. This frisbee causes symbols on the reels to shuffle into new places to either create or improve a prize bone win.
Featured slots
One Coin – Wazdan
Wazdan has shrunken its flagship Coins series to just one single reel in the studio’s latest coin-collecting slot release, One Coin. To gain wins in this title, players must land symbols fully visible on the game’s single, one-cell reel.
Andrzej Hyla, Chief Commercial Officer at Wazdan, stated: “One Coin presents partners and their players with a fresh and inspired offering, revolutionary not just for our beloved series but the industry as a whole.
“The single reel excitement maximises players’ chances for grand wins courtesy of our trusted mechanics including Hold the Jackpot and Chance Level, but vitally eye-catching new features including the mystery multiplier working to boost player retention levels and elevate the bonus game experience.”
Bonus coins appear throughout the base game, offering prize values between x1 and x5 the player’s stake.
Jackpot coins can also appear on the reels, with mini (x10), minor (x20) and major (x50) prizes being distributed when their respective coins land fully on the single reel.
Special ‘mystery’ coins can also drop into play, revealing random cash prizes between x1 and x100 the player’s wager.
Players can gain access to the ‘Hold the Jackpot’ bonus game if a golden scatter depicting its name lands fully on the reels.
In this game mode, players are given three spins on a 1×1 reel to land as many cash prizes fully visible on the single-cell as possible. Each prize that appears fully on the reel will reset the number of spins to three.
Additionally, the grand jackpot coin can appear in this bonus game mode, awarding x500 the player’s preferred bet.
Mystery multipliers can also land on the reel, applying a multiplier between x2 and x10 to the player’s total winnings across the bonus game mode.
All Ways Queen – SYNOT Games
SYNOT Games offered expanding wilds in its latest royal slot release, All Ways Queen, a 5×4 reel slot with 27-paylines and a maximum win worth x252 the player’s stake. The slot has medium-low volatility with an RTP of 85.09-97.95%.
Lukáš Hrabinský, Lead Game Producer from SYNOT Games, commented: “This slot’s main feature is obviously its both-ways pay mechanic which is brought to life by the excitement of its central character and her expansion.
“The punk influence compliments the strong and simple style of this low-volatility title with a good hit rate and great visuals.”
Low value symbols come in the form of cherries, lemons, oranges and plums. These symbols can award wins worth x1 the player’s wager if the right number of symbols land on a winning payline.
Moving up the paytable, grapes, watermelons and bars depict the medium value symbols, offering between x2 and x4 the player’s stake.
High value symbols are represented by bells and red lucky sevens. If the right number of matching combinations fall on one turn, these symbols can award between x8 and x10 the player’s bet.
Scatter stars can also appear on the reels, awarding x20 or x50 the player’s wager when three or four land on the same turn, respectively.
Finally, Queen wilds can drop into play on reels two and three. These wilds will expand across their full reels when they appear, substituting for all symbols other than the scatter stars.
Mystery of the Lamp Treasure Oasis – IGT PlayDigital
IGT PlayDigital has taken one of the supplier’s land-based classics online with Mystery of the Lamp Treasure Oasis, a 5×3 reel slot with 50-paylines and a maximum win worth x1,875 the player’s wager. The slot has an RTP of 94.22%.
“Adding Mystery of the Lamp to IGT PlayDigital’s content library for the U.S. enables our customers to offer players another highly successful IGT land-based game across platforms,” said Gil Rotem, IGT PlayDigital President.
“Much like we did with IGT’s Prosperity Link’s arrival in the online space, we anticipate players and operators will quickly gravitate to Mystery of the Lamp given its strong following around the world and the quality of the gameplay experience.”
Purple, orange and crystal gems can land on the reels, applying themselves to their respective pots that sit above the reels. These pots can become filled on random spins where their respective gemstones appear, which will trigger the ‘mystery of the lamp’ bonus.
Depending on the pot that activates the ‘mystery of the lamp’ feature, enhancements will become available throughout the bonus game mode. However, multiple pots can become filled on the same spin, causing multiple features to become active for the bonus game mode.
The crystal gemstone fills up the ‘jackpot’ pot. If this pot helps to trigger the bonus game mode, the game will use 30 reels, whereas each bonus game impacted by the other two pots only uses 15 reels.
Once the game mode begins, players are given three spins in which gold coins can drop into play, displaying monetary values that will be awarded to the player once the game mode finishes.
The triggering gemstones can also land on the reels, awarding special features. If the purple gemstone fills the ‘double’ pot to trigger the game mode, purple gemstones can appear on the reels, doubling the values of any gold coins they apply themselves to.
Each coin on the reels can be doubled up to four times throughout the same bonus game mode.
If the orange gemstone fills the ‘ignite’ pot to trigger the game mode, orange gemstones can appear on the reels to enhance the prize values of any coins they apply themselves to.
When the ‘jackpot’ pot helps to activate the game mode, special jackpot meters sit below the reel set. Each crystal gemstone that appears will apply itself to one of the jackpot meters below the reels, which will award a jackpot prize once filled.
These jackpot prizes include mini (x12.5), minor (x31.25), maxi (x125), major (x1,000) and grand (x1,875).
The grand jackpot prize can also be awarded if the reels become completely filled with bonus gold coins.
