The information was released yesterday via a statement from DraftKings.
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Plaintiffs in one of the class action suits against daily fantasy companies DraftKings and FanDuel have asked the judge to compel the companies to immediately show that players’ funds are safe with them. The memo is what Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett based his order, filed Thursday, which effectively banned unlicensed daily fantasy sports operators, such as DraftKings and rival FanDuel, from offering their product in Nevada. He’s been working out of the Albany Bureau since 2011, covering Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration and the state Legislature.
Mr. Bharara’s office is responsible for what poker players still refer to as “Black Friday”: April 15, 2011, when a grand jury indicted executives at the two biggest online poker firms doing business in the U.S. The booming business in America was effectively shut down, and the industry suffered a huge setback from which it still hasn’t recovered.
Customers pick player lineups much like season-long fantasy sports games, wagering a couple quarters to thousands of dollars in a few cases, and win based on the points earned during a single day.
New Jersey’s casinos this week saw their three-year push to expand gambling into sports events revived when a federal appeals court decision vacated a lower court’s ruling nixing a state law allowing sports betting in casinos. “As a result, pay-to-play daily fantasy sports can not be offered in Nevada without licensure”.
A DraftKings spokesmen declined to comment on the investigation.
DraftKings drew 3.76 million entries to its NFL Week 6 contests with guaranteed prize pools on Sunday, October 18, taking in almost $23 million in entry fees and paying out about $21 million in prize money, according to a report by SuperLobby, which analyzes the daily fantasy sports industry. Based on this definition, daily fantasy sports leagues may not cut muster under the UIGEA. Yahoo entered the “fantasy sports” arena just this summer, under Vice President, Media, Kenneth Fuchs, and this will be the first quarter where those numbers will be folded into the whole. Still, many states, including New Mexico, do not consider it gambling because of a law passed by Congress is 2006.
LegalSportsReport.com reported Monday that a lesser-known daily fantasy site, StarsDraft, has taken the step to pull its real-money contests out of all but four states where the legal landscape is more clear: New Jersey, Massachusetts, Kansas and Maryland. These games make up about 70 percent of the activity on the site, according to SuperLobby, although FanDuel claims they make up a significantly lower portion of its activity. Many states are wrestling with daily fantasy sports as well.
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Daily fantasy esports company Vulcun, which runs matches for video games like League of Legends, revealed to GamesBeat today that it is ceasing operations in Nevada.
