DraftKings settle lawsuit with former executive over move to Fanatics
DraftKings has reached a settlement with a former executive that the sports betting company had accused of stealing trade secrets before he quit his job to help build out rival Fanatics’ nascent team catering to “VIP” clients.
Lawyers for DraftKings, Michael Hermalyn and Fanatics said in a court filing in the federal court in Boston that they had reached a confidential settlement to resolve dueling lawsuits filed in Massachusetts and California over whether the executive could work at Fanatics and what services he could provide.
The deal came three months after the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had rejected Hermalyn’s bid to overturn a preliminary injunction that severely restricted the type of work he can do at Fanatics after finding a noncompete agreement he signed while at DraftKings was enforceable.
Hermalyn has remained employed by Fanatics throughout the litigation. The company’s website continued to list him as the head of its Los Angeles office on Tuesday, a day after DraftKings said it had settled the case.
“All litigation between them has been settled and dismissed on confidential terms, and Mr. Hermalyn will abide by his contractual commitments to DraftKings,” Russell Beck, a lawyer for Hermalyn at Beck Reed Riden, said in a statement.