The former 'Bachelor' star and her husband were slammed for allegedly colluding to win a DraftKings contest.
Former Bachelor contestant Jade Roper Tolbert shocked the world of fantasy football over the weekend when she won a DraftKings contest for the NFL wildcard round and nabbed a massive $1 million payday.
However, it didn't take long for some on Twitter to accuse her and her husband, Tanner Tolbert, of cheating.
The 33-year-old reality star celebrated the victory on Twitter, responding to one Twitter user who shared a screenshot of the contest results, writing, "I’m pretty sure this girl was on The Bachelor. I only know this because my girlfriend forces me to watch it."
"Hahaha that’s me! And Tanner told me I shouldn’t play DK Metcalf!" Jade responded. She later excitedly shared, "Doesn’t even feel real over here! Officially speechless. LIKE WHAAAAAAAAT."
Not long after, DraftKings even capitalized on Jade's fame as a Bachelor star when they tweeted, "Will you accept this [rose] as this week's millionaire? Congrats on taking it down."
Jade replied to DraftKings' since-deleted post, "Absolutely, I’d love to accept your ?! ????."
However, it wasn't long before many self-proclaimed fantasy football experts took to Twitter to call foul. Specifically, many accused Jade and Tanner of colluding when it came to their picks in an effort to maximize their chances of winning.
She and her husband cheated, end of story. pic.twitter.com/WmRLAKAn4K
— huitcinq (@huitcinqDFS) January 6, 2020
Everyone realizes the two of them max entered and split their player exposure, right? And that is illegal.
— Benjamin Cunningham (@BenC1357) January 6, 2020
According to DraftKings official rules, players are not allowed to build "complementary lineups which serve to work together" in an effort to employ a "strategy that may create any unfair advantage over individual play."
While DraftKings has not taken down their tweet announcing Jade as the winner, the organization did delete their tweet congratulating her directly.
Meanwhile, one of Tanner's friends, Chris Randone, initially congratulated the pair for winning, but later took his message down after receiving vitriolic messages from other users.
"I'm done speaking on the situation that doesn't involve me. Two great friends I love and support in which I thought was doing the right thing in defending from the information I personally know that's valid But with the hate messages and death threats I just want to be left alone," Randone wrote.
In a statement released to ET on Monday, Tanner defended his wife's win and said that he and Jade "respect that DraftKings feels they need to do their due diligence in regard to Jade winning their $1 million dollar prize.
"Though we must ponder, would the questions, accusations and curiosity about this win be the same if the winner had been male and someone who wasn’t already in the public eye?" Tanner continued. "It is incredibly important for us to establish that Jade’s win is nothing more than pure luck and we are confident that DraftKings will determine the same."
Meanwhile, DraftKings released a statement to E! News addressing the allegations. "The DraftKings compliance team reviews the results of all major contests to ensure they comply with our Terms of Use and applicable state regulations," the organization stated. "We take the integrity and fairness of our DFS contests seriously, and prizes are not paid out until our reviews are complete."
ET has reached out to Jade and Tanner for comment.
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