Terry Thompson of Montgomery County has filed a product liability lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL), Draft Kings, FanDuel and Genius Sports, each of which are engaged in the development and distribution of “unreasonably dangerous” online sports betting platforms that push addictive live in-game microbets, according to the lawsuit.

According to a press release by the Public Health Advocacy Institute, the complaint alleges the defendants use sophisticated digital technology and software—including artificial intelligence and machine learning—to create addicted gamblers and encourage them to make more of the microbets.

According to the filing, Thompson lost more than $1.8 million since October 2020, sold his finance company and planned to kill himself.

“That all changed once they started using the FanDuel and DraftKings Sportsbook Apps,” the complaint states. “Within just a few years of placing their first microbets on the Sportsbook Apps, Plaintiffs nearly lost everything.”

Thompson is joined by Christopher Sage of Pennsylvania in the lawsuit. They are seeking a jury trial, compensation for damages and attorney fees, and to prohibit the defendants from continuing the alleged wrongful conduct.

From the press release:

The complaint details how the NFL not only licenses player and game data to Genius Sports, but was also the largest shareholder in the company from 2021 to 2025, and remains the second-largest shareholder to this day. Genius Sports supplies online sportsbooks, including DraftKings and FanDuel, with officially licensed data and statistics from professional sports leagues needed to support online sports gambling, and is the sole supplier of the NFL’s live data and statistics. Thus, Genius Sports and the NFL are among the main players profiting from increased microbetting during sporting events.

The complaint alleges that the defendants lured plaintiffs Sage and Thompson into making more and more microbets on the DraftKings and FanDuel platforms. In addition to constant “push” notifications that promoted microbets, DraftKings and FanDuel also assigned each man a personal “VIP Host” who communicated with plaintiffs personally on their mobile phones and enticed them with promotional offers, trips to sporting events and other gifts. The personal contact and enticements continued even after at least one of the plaintiffs indicated that they no longer wanted to participate in online betting on the DraftKings platform.

The filing is below:

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