“This court should not allow the attorney general to destroy a business that has been openly and legally operating in the state for years without due process of law”, DraftKings said in their memorandum of law, filed in a NY state court.
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Fantasy sports fans demonstrate outside NY Attorney General Eric.
The attorney general had demanded DraftKings and FanDuel shut down, saying daily fantasy games constitute illegal gambling and are subject to criminal penalties. With fantasy sports, the players’ actions are subject to as many variables as picking a victor against the spread.
FanDuel Inc. may learn by the end of the week whether the football-heavy Thanksgiving holiday will bring a feast or starvation for daily fantasy sports players in one of the burgeoning business’s biggest USA markets.
News, views and commentary on Long Island, state and national politics.
FanDuel stopped taking new deposits from players in NY on Friday. That’s for us. We’re legally dogs. The Boston-based company said it is confident in its legal position.
The move comes days after DraftKings and FanDuel filed court papers in state Supreme Court in Manhattan askiing a judge to rule on the legality of their businesses.
The companies argue their contests are games of skill and should not be considered illegal gambling, but legislators thus far have tended to not agree. Erin Hogan and Bucky Godbolt even host a two-hour show Sunday morning dedicated to daily fantasy sports. It is seeking the injunction in part so that it can resume regular operations, it said.
Re: “Does NY AG know best on fantasy sports betting?”
But in a 45-page filing, DraftKings accused Schneiderman, a Democrat, of trying to “banish” the company from NY without providing it with enough time to adequately defend itself.
DraftKings says 7 percent of its customers are in NY. The day before that, a judge in NY could give DraftKings and FanDuel something for which to be truly thankful. A spokesman for Schneiderman’s office denied that claim as well, and by this evening, most stories had gone with an alternate explanation for the FanDuel processing delay, relating to a supposed new payment processor and its new ID-verification protocol. Each said they face irreparable damage otherwise.
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FanDuel generated revenue of $57.3m for the full year 2014, more than four times the $14.2m generated the previous year, while DraftKings annual revenue ascended from $4m to $30m for the same period.
