“It’s our trophy, and many hoist it playing our one week games”, says the narrator in a commercial for online fantasy sports site DraftKings. On November 16 Mendez declined to temporarily restrain Schneiderman in his pursuit of classifying DFS as unlawful gambling in NY, a move that might suggest that Schneiderman has the upper hand going into the upcoming hearing.
Advertisement
The number of people playing fantasy sports this year will total 56.8 million, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Assn. He doesn’t sound inclined to outlaw daily fantasy games outright, but he says, “It’s when these activities go unregulated that the problems happen”. “We will immediately begin taking steps to prepare to implement the changes to our product that the Attorney General requires”.
Attorney general Eric Schneiderman’s office is seeking details on Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy, which operates in 43 U.S. states.
DraftKings differs from rival FanDuel in that DraftKings offers DFS contests on events like golf tournaments and NASCAR races. For those who don’t play fantasy sports, I’m quite certain the constant advertising push – which included TBS digitally emblazoning the DraftKings logo on the bullpen wall as they were showing pitchers warm up – has made you at least conscious of the daily fantasy sports business.
“Never until 10 days ago had anyone suggested, hinted or asserted there was anything illegal about anything FanDuel and DraftKings were doing”, Boies said. “That random deal of the cards at the start of the game brings an element of chance that can, in any given game, outweigh someone’s skill”. (For now, New Yorkers with money in their accounts can continue to play while the legal process unfolds).
“They’re legal”, Boies said.
It’s a reasonable, measured proposal that other states should consider emulating instead of New York’s forceful attempt to stuff the genie back into the bottle by banning the practice altogether. The question facing policy makers now that this has become a multi-billion dollar business is whether it is primarily a game of skill or a game of chance.
In making the distinction between “traditional” season long fantasy sports and daily contests, the attorney general makes the argument that DFS contests are outside the user’s control, pushing the debate away from whether or not DFS are games of skill. It’s indisputable, similar to professional poker, that there are certainly players who maintain consistent success. So the question is a practical one: “Does skill predominate, or does chance predominate?” DraftKings and FanDuel disagree and are arguing in the state’s Supreme Court to stay open in one of their biggest customer bases.
Advertisement
Of particular concern, the document noted, was employees accessing and copying the lineup entries of FanDuel’s most successful players, and then using those exact lineup constructions on another DFS site. Roughly seven percent, or greater than 370,000 of those customers, are New York-based. Baker last week said he played a free version of a DraftKings game on his cell phone and concluded it was a game of skill.
