Daily fantasy sports

This article is about daily fantasy sports. For fantasy sports in general, see Fantasy sport.

Daily fantasy sports (DFS) are a subset of fantasy sport games. As with traditional fantasy sports games, players compete against others by building a team of professional athletes from a particular league or competition, and earn points based on the actual statistical performance of the players in real-world competitions. Daily fantasy sports are an accelerated variant of traditional fantasy sports that are conducted over short-term periods, such as a week or single day of competition, as opposed to those that are played across an entire season. Daily fantasy sports are structured in the form of competitions (typically referred to as a "contest"); users pay an entry fee in order to participate, and build a team of players in a certain sport while complying with a salary cap. Depending on their overall performance, players may win a share of a pre-determined pot. Entry fees help fund prizes, while a portion of the entry fee goes to the provider as rake-off revenue.[1][2]

In the United States, the daily fantasy sports industry is dominated by two competing services; the New York-based FanDuel, and the Boston-based DraftKings. Both companies were established as venture capital-backed startup companies, received funding from investment firms, sports broadcasters, leagues, and team owners, and became known for the aggressive marketing of their services. As of September 2015, both companies have an estimated value of at least $1 billion in the United States, and control 95% of the DFS market there.[3][4] The two primarily compete against smaller DFS services, such as Fantasy Aces and Yahoo! Sports.[5][6] The popularity of the daily fantasy format has been credited to its convenience in comparison to season-length games, as well as the focus on major cash prizes in the promotion of these services. Daily fantasy has also been credited with helping to improve television viewership and engagement with sports.

Daily fantasy sports have faced notable legal challenges in the United States, such as most prominently, discussion over whether they constitute gambling. It has been argued that due to their format, players are essentially making proposition wagers on the varying performance of individual athletes in specific games, and not managing the performance of their selections on a week-to-week basis. Proponents have defended DFS as being a game of skill, as the required familiarity with the players and teams, as well as salary cap management, reward more skilled players.

The United States' Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIEGA) contains language dictating that fantasy sports are not considered an unlawful wager under the act; however, the act only prohibits the electronic transfer of funds from unlawful gambling as defined under state laws—which typically define gambling by either the predominance of chance over skill in a game, or how much control the player has over the outcome. The U.S. states of Illinois, Nevada, New York, Texas, and Hawaii have issued rulings or opinions classifying DFS contests as gambling, with Attorney Generals in all of these states but Nevada (which declared that they are only legal if operated as a licensed sports pool) considering them to be illegal. The Illinois and New York rulings—the latter having resulted from an investigation of DFS services after it was alleged that employees working for DraftKings and FanDuel had used inside information to win cash prizes from each other, spawned retaliatory lawsuits from DraftKings and FanDuel, alleging that the rulings were the result of a misinterpretation of the nature of their services.

Gameplay

There are several main disciplines of daily fantasy sports competitions, divided into two categories: cash games, and guaranteed prize pool (GPP).[2][7][8] DFS contests typically utilize a salary cap format, in which players are allotted a maximum budget to spend on athletes for their team, represented as either play money or points. Each athlete has their own cost, with elite athletes having the highest costs.[9]

In "Double-up" or "50/50" cash game competitions, the object is to finish with a point total within the top 50% of all participants; players who finish in the top half of the field all share an equal prize that is equal to double the entry fee, while the remainder lose their entry fee. Head-to-head competitions are similar, except that players choose an opponent they must beat to win the prize.[7] Guaranteed prize pool contests have higher stakes, using tiered payouts based on finishing in different percentiles or positions of the field of contestants.[10] Further variations of double-up games, including Triple-up, Quadruple-up, and Quintuple-up, may also be offered.[11]

Daily fantasy games exist in a variety of major sports, depending on service, including but not limited to American football (including college football and the NFL), association football (soccer), auto racing, baseball, basketball, cricket, golf, hockey, rugby league and rugby union.[8][12] Daily fantasy contests have also been held in professional e-sports competitions, such as League of Legends.[13]

History

Early examples

Among the first sites to specialize in the format of daily fantasy was Instant Fantasy Sports, established in 2007; the service's co-founder Chris Fargis explained that the service was inspired by the format of online poker, and that his goal was to "take the time frame of season-long fantasy sports leagues and shrink it".[14] The site was later acquired by NBC Universal, who had acquired the fantasy sports-focused website Rotoworld in 2006. The service was also re-branded as SnapDraft, but later shut down.[15][16]

Growth

On July 21, 2009, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based prediction market game Hubdub launched a spin-off known as FanDuel; the service attempted to market itself as a modern alternative to the fantasy sports services provided by other media properties, such as Yahoo! Sports and CBSSports.com, with the daily fantasy format and integration with popular social networks.[17] Its founder, Nigel Eccles, was inspired to create the site after learning about the carve-out for fantasy sports in the U.S. Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, and realizing that it did not specifically state that a legal, paid fantasy sports game had to last for an entire season.[2] In February 2012, the Boston-based DraftKings was established by former VistaPrint executives Jason Robins, Matthew Kalish, and Paul Liberman. DraftKings gained a local, Somerville-based competitor in StarStreet, when it introduced a daily fantasy game of its own.[18]

DraftKings and FanDuel in particular became the subjects of venture capital investments by various parties; in April 2013, Major League Baseball invested an undisclosed amount in DraftKings, becoming the first U.S. professional sports organization to invest in daily fantasy sports.[2][8] In 2014, DraftKings acquired DraftStreet, as well as StarStreet, and raised another $41 million in investment led by the Raine Group, bringing the company to a total of $75 million in outside funding.[19] FanDuel pursued investments as well, with an $11 million Series C funding round that included Comcast Ventures, a $70 million Series D round in September 2014 led by Shamrock Capital Advisors with participation from NBC Sports Ventures and KKR among others, and a Series E funding round of $275 million in July 2015, valuing the company at over $1 billion.[20][21]

DraftKings and FanDuel also pursued advertising and endorsement deals with sports teams and leagues; in November 2014, DraftKings entered into a multi-year sponsorship deal with the National Hockey League, complimenting team-level sponsorship deals it had reached with seven NHL franchises. The same month, the National Basketball Association reached a similar four-year deal with FanDuel, and acquired an equity stake in the company.[22][23] The company also planned to expand the scope of its MLB partnership.[24] In April 2015, after the National Football League began to allow daily fantasy providers to sign multi-year team sponsorship deals, with caveats, FanDuel reached deals with sixteen NFL teams for placements on team-oriented digital properties, radio, and in-stadium.[23] DraftKings had also received an investment by Robert Kraft—a local businessman whose holdings include the New England Patriots.[25] In October 2014, NBC Sports entered into a content sharing partnership with the DFS information website Rotogrinders, in which it would provide daily fantasy-oriented content for Rotoworld.[26]

Mainstream popularity

The mainstream growth of daily fantasy sports heading into 2015 was credited to several factors, including the convenience of the format in comparison to season-length fantasy sports, aggressive marketing campaigns focusing on prospective cash prizes (with some contests featuring advertised cash prices of up to $1 million), as well as their availability on mobile devices—which compliments technologically-oriented lifestyles.[8][14][27][28] The structure and payouts of daily fantasy games have been described as providing a feeling of "instant gratification" to its players, similar to that of online gambling.[27]

Writing for The New York Times Magazine, Jay Caspian Kang noted that despite its similarities, DFS appealed to mainstream sports fans because it evoked the feelings of community commonly associated with traditional fantasy sports, rather than the "shady underground games" of poker.[14] The popularity of daily fantasy has also influenced fan engagement with sports; Fox Sports president Erik Shanks felt that daily fantasy sports help improve television viewership of sporting events, while FanDuel stated that users became more engaged with sports content after joining the service.[27]

In July 2015, Yahoo!, a historic provider of season-length fantasy sports, announced that it would begin to offer paid daily and weekly fantasy games as part of its Yahoo! Sports website.[6] Moneyball, one of the first Australian DFS services, was also established by former Fairfax Media employees James Fitzgerald and Rax Huq; the company secured $1.8 million in series A funding. Fitzgerald noted that the sports betting industry in Australia had brought in $900 million in revenue yearly, and that DFS was "a more ethically and morally preferred means of partnership with a bookmaker."[29]

In September 2015, both FanDuel and DraftKings also expanded their offerings into electronic sports; FanDuel acquired the e-sports focused DFS service AlphaDraft (which it planned to continue operating as an independent brand), while DraftKings added contests for the 2015 League of Legends World Championship.[13][30]

Increased scrutiny

In late-2015, daily fantasy sports began to face increased legal scrutiny. In August 2015, a class action lawsuit was filed against DraftKings, alleging that it engaged in false advertising in regards to a promotion in which the service claimed it would double a new user's first deposit. The suit alleged that DraftKings would only credit the deposit bonus to a player's account if they fulfill certain monetary and participation requirements within four months, causing them to "incur additional and substantial monetary obligations", rather than instantly receive the bonus as implied by advertising.[31]

On October 6, 2015, following reports that a DraftKings employee had used inside information to win $350,000 on FanDuel, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that he had opened an investigation into the two services and the allegations that employees from the two services were using this information to win prizes from each other.[32][33] Both sites have since barred their employees from participating in daily fantasy games.[34] On October 14, 2015, the FBI launched an investigation of its own into the two services regarding the inside information scandal.[34]

In the wake of the scandal, multiple class-action lawsuits were filed against both DraftKings and FanDuel, with suits alleging charges such as fraud, racketeering, negligence, and false advertising, arguing that the employees' use of inside information had made the games unfair. One of the lawsuits were filed by a resident of New Orleans, despite paid fantasy games being illegal in the state.[35][36][37] On October 30, 2015, Washington NFL player Pierre Garçon also filed a class-action lawsuit against FanDuel, arguing that the service had exploited his name and likeness without permission as part of its services and marketing. FanDuel objected to the lawsuit, arguing that its use of his likeness fell within existing case law surrounding the use of player names and statistics in fantasy sports games.[38] The lawsuit was settled out of court.[39]

In December 2015, Canadian media company TheScore launched QuickDraft, a daily fantasy game targeted at both Canada and the United States, based on the intellectual property of its 2014 acquisition of Swoopt. In contrast to other DFS services and in an effort to work around the increased scrutiny and uncertain legality of paid games, the service is being positioned as a free-to-play service with smaller cash prizes, a more "casual" atmosphere with fewer "sharks", and the possibility of being advertising-funded in the future.[40]

Marketing

The aggressive marketing tactics used by DraftKings and FanDuel have also had an impact on the growth of the daily fantasy industry. In June 2015, DraftKings entered into a three-year sponsorship deal with ESPN valued at $250 million, which also included "integration" within ESPN's television and digital content, and having exclusivity in advertising daily fantasy services on ESPN networks beginning January 2016. DraftKings entered into a similar deal with Fox Sports; in exchange for Fox acquiring a $150 million equity stake, DraftKings agreed to buy $250 million in advertising from Fox over the next three years.[41][42][43][44] DraftKings' sponsorship exclusivity deal with ESPN was also to include the acquisition of an equity stake in the company, but the deal was reportedly called off due to objections by ESPN's parent, The Walt Disney Company, over financially associating itself with activities perceived to be gambling.[41][45][46]

By September 2015 and the start of the football season, both DraftKings and FanDuel had heavily increased the amount of television advertising that they aired; iSpot.tv estimated that both sites collectively spent over $107 million on television advertising in September 2015 alone—with nearly half being spent on advertising during National Football League telecasts ($23.6 million by DraftKings, and $26.7 million spent by FanDuel). Of the total, $60.1 million was spent by DraftKings, with $7.95 million spent during college football games, $2.05 million during ESPN's sports news program SportsCenter, and $1.36 million during South Park episodes.[3] Some viewers have felt that sports telecasts had been oversaturated by DFS commercials, considering the constant adverts to be "annoying".[47][48]

Classification as gambling

It has been debated whether daily fantasy sports constitute gambling. Critics have argued that because athlete performance can vary on a week-to-week basis, players are essentially wagering on the performance of individual athletes during a given game, rather than managing their team on a week-to-week basis across a season.[49][50][51] On the other hand, proponents have argued that preparing a daily fantasy team is an activitiy of skill, as it requires knowledge of the sport, its individual players and their respective performance, and the ability to build a team of top-performing players with this knowledge within the limitation of a salary cap, to achieve a satisfactory outcome.[52][53][54]

In an "IAmA" thread on Reddit, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins described his service as being "almost identical to a casino", compared the concept of DFS to being a cross between fantasy sports and online poker, and repeatedly referred to the service using gambling-oriented terms such as "wager" and "betting".[11][31][50][51][55][56] DraftKings and FanDuel have also entered into affiliation and sponsorship agreements with gambling-oriented entities; DraftKings sponsored the 2015 Belmont Stakes and the World Series of Poker, while FanDuel has affiliated with websites related to sports betting.[57] At the same time, both companies have insisted that their daily fantasy games represent a game of skill.[58]

Skill of players

Inexperienced players may be at a disadvantage due to the skill of their opponents;[14] Bloomberg Businessweek acknowledged that the majority of prize money in daily fantasy games were often won by a minority of professional players, or "sharks", who employ "elaborate statistical modeling and automated tools that can manage hundreds of entries at once and identify the weakest opponents".[59] Professional players may also engage in the practice of "bumhunting"—in which they utilize their heavy saturation of entries to target inexperienced players.[14]

A study by McKinsey & Company over the first half of the 2015 MLB season estimated that 91% of winnings were won by only 1.3% of players. FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles disputed the study due to the larger draw that daily fantasy football provides.[60]

Outlining his opinion on the matter, Kang explained that:[14]

D.F.S., the game itself, is not inherently crooked. Most of the benefits praised by its enthusiasts — the ease of play, the camaraderie among fans, the challenge of solving what amounts to a math puzzle — are real. It does take skill to parse game film, diligently follow the news and interpret the thousands of bits of sports information that are generated each night. If a problem gambler at the poker rooms I frequent in New York City were to hire a programmer and flood the D.F.S. market with his lineups, he would almost certainly hemorrhage money.[14]

In January 2016, DraftKings announced that it would implement changes to counter some of these issues, including banning the use of off-site scripting by players, introducing a classification system to identify professional players, and adding entry limits to its non-guaranteed contests. The site had also added "beginner" contests and the ability for users to block players they do not wish to compete against.[61]

Legal definitions of skill and chance

In the U.S., criminal gambling statutes are found in Title 18, such as the Federal Wire Act, which prohibits interstate sports wagering, and the Illegal Gambling Business Act (18 U.S.C. § 1955), which prohibits the interstate conduct of wagering activity prohibited under state law.[62][63] Additionally, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) prohibits the transfer of funds in connection to online gambling that is illegal under state law.[31][62]

State laws apply varying standards in regards to determining whether a game is one of skill, or of chance; most are based on whether the skill-based elements are predominant over those of chance, and whether these chance-based elements have more than an incidental effect on the outcome of the game (dominant factor test, material degree).[64] Some states use stricter criteria, under which games whose outcomes are influenced by any element of chance, or appeal to a "gambling instinct", are considered games of chance, regardless of the presence of skill-based elements.[64] In the state of Illinois, any game played for cash where the players are not the "actual contestants" in a "bona fide contest for the determination of skill, speed, strength, or endurance", constitutes gambling.[65]

In regards to whether an "entry fee" constitutes a wager or simply a fee required to participate, Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh of the U.S. District Court of New Jersey found in the 2007 federal lawsuit Humphrey v. Viacom, Inc. that entry fees in pay-to-play fantasy sports games did not constitute a "wager" because they are "paid unconditionally", and because the prizes in such games were "guaranteed" and determined in advance.[66][67]

The Canadian Gaming Association commissioned an opinion on the legality of DFS in Canada from former Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario general counsel Don Bourgeois. He determined that DFS was presumed to not be a game of skill under Canadian law, going on to say in an interview that "The Criminal Code of Canada says if a game is a game of mixed skill and chance then it is considered a game of chance. That's gambling." Canadian authorities, however, have not yet attempted to target DFS services, and historically, have only been likely to target illegal gambling operations that have a presence within the country.[68] There is a form of legal sports betting in Canada conducted through the lottery system, often known as Sport Select, but it is subject to a legal prohibition on wagering on individual sporting events.[69]

UIGEA carve-out

The UIGEA has frequently been cited as having exempted daily fantasy games from being considered gambling, as the law does not consider an online contest with pre-determined prizes, and an outcome based on skill that is "determined predominantly by accumulated statistical results of sporting events, including any non-participant's individual performances in such sporting events", to be unlawful wagering.[31][62][70][71] The carve-out was based on the language of an amendment proposed by Senator Richard Bryan to the failed Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.[53][72]

The act itself does not define unlawful internet wagering, and expressly refrains from altering the legality of any underlying conduct other than funds transfers, meaning that state law remains binding.[62][63][63] It also depends on banks to act as enforcers of the prohibitions.[73] Congressman Jim Leach, who authored the UIEGA, explained that the fantasy sports carve-out was meant to relieve the burden of enforcement of the act by banks, nor cover the present-day daily fantasy industry, and that "it is sheer chutzpah for a fantasy sports company to cite the law as a legal basis for existing".[62][74][75]

Self-imposted restrictions

Due to the uncertain legality of DFS under local gambling laws in their opinions,[76] daily fantasy services have typically deemed residents of Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana and Washington to be ineligible to participate.[11][31][49][58] However, an investigation by The New York Times found that these geoblock restrictions could easily be circumvented using anonymous proxies, and it was estimated that in 2014, DraftKings had still collected $484,897 in entry fees from players in the five states where it had asserted that DFS was illegal.[57][77] These reports led to regulatory probes by investigators in the aforementioned states.[78]

Legal challenges

Louisiana attempted to pass a law that would exempt fantasy sports from its anti-online gambling laws, but the bill was defeated as the result of lobbying by both the Louisiana Family Forum (which showed concerns that players could develop an addiction to daily fantasy games), and the Louisiana Video Gaming Association (which felt that DFS would cannibalize the legal video poker industry, and needed to be highly regulated).[79]

On October 15, 2015, the Nevada Gaming Control Board published a memorandum ruling that daily fantasy sports games were a form of sports wagering, and that DFS services must cease serving customers in the state of Nevada until they obtain a sports pool license.[11][25] The Board felt that DFS fell under the state's definitions of a "gambling game" and a "sports pool", as they "[accept] wagers on sporting events or other events by any system or method of wagering", including wagers on events occurring during a sporting event (props), combinations of multiple events occurring within an event (parlays), and against the performance of other players, with "rake-offs" taken by the operator on each wager (defined as a "percentage game" under Nevada law).[11] In further support of its argument, the memorandum cited Jason Robins' comments on Reddit that described DraftKings using gambling-oriented terminology; the board stated that its classification was "consistent with how operators of certain daily fantasy sports describe themselves".[11]

The state of Massachusetts tabled a bill exploring the possibility of allowing the Massachusetts Lottery to run online, skill-based games, such as daily fantasy sports.[80] On November 19, 2015, the government announced that it would allow daily fantasy sports services to operate within Massachusetts under proposed regulations, including the requirement for all players to be 21 and over, banning members of the professional sports industry from playing the games (including athletes), and banning the marketing of the services in colleges and high schools.[81]

On December 23, 2015, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan ruled under state law that daily fantasy sports were a form of unlawful gambling, because the athletes themselves were the "actual contestants" in a contest of skill, and not the players who picked them, meaning that "persons whose wagers depend upon how particular, selected athletes perform in actual sporting events stand in no different stead than persons who wager on the outcome of any sporting event in which they are not participants."[65][82] DraftKings and FanDuel filed lawsuits against the Attorney General the following day, seeking a court opinion on the matter. The DraftKings lawsuit argued that the order "has set off a chain of events that—if unchecked— will unjustly destroy a legitimate industry."[83] The sites may continue to operate pending the result of court hearings.[84]

On January 17, 2016, a similar opinion was made by Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton. Paxton stated that "paid daily 'fantasy sports' operators claim they can legally operate as an unregulated house, but none of their arguments square with existing Texas law. Simply put, it is prohibited gambling in Texas if you bet on the performance of a participant in a sporting event and the house takes a cut." He also, however, stated that traditional season-length fantasy sports were legal.[85][86] Prior to the ruling, it was also reported that Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery, had been investigating ways of integrating DFS into the state lottery system, such as an attempt to partner with DraftKings to offer a game that would award DraftKings credit as prizes.[87]

On January 27, 2016, at the request of Senator Rosalyn Baker, Attorney General of Hawaii Doug Chin issued an opinion that DFS could be illegal under Hawaii law, as it involves a wager on an event outside of the player's control, explaining that "the technology may have changed, but the vice has not."[88]

New York ruling and lawsuit

On November 10, 2015, Attorney General of New York State Eric Schneiderman issued a cease-and-desist order to DraftKings and FanDuel, arguing that DFS was illegal under state law (which specifies that games where players "risk something of value" and do not have "control or influence" over the outcome, are gambling),[89][90] and ordering the two services to cease serving residents of New York. He stated that DFS "wagers" represented "a wager on a 'contest of chance' where winning or losing depends on numerous elements of chance to a 'material degree'". He characterized the DFS industry as being a "massive, multi-billion-dollar scheme intended to evade the law and fleece sports fans across the country", causing the "same public health and economic problems associated with gambling, particularly for populations prone to gambling addiction and individuals who are unprepared to sustain losses, lured by the promise of easy money."[58][91]

In response, DraftKings and FanDuel filed lawsuits against the state of New York on November 13, arguing that their games were one of skill, they had been denied due process due to the Attorney General's abruptness, that he does not have the power to make such a ruling, and that Schneiderman engaged in tortious interference by sending cease and desist notices to their payment processors.[92][93] On November 16, the two services tried to request a temporary restraining order to prevent Schneiderman from enforcing the cease-and-desist, but a state judge declared their request to be premature. Following the hearing, a spokesperson for the Attorney General declared that he could now file a formal lawsuit against the two sites "as soon as tomorrow". The same day, state senator Michael Ranzenhofer introduced a bill that would explicitly classify daily fantasy sports as a game of skill.[66][91]

On November 17, 2015, the Attorney General filed a request for a temporary injunction to force DraftKings and FanDuel to cease serving customers in the state of New York. In the filing, Schneiderman argued that DFS was merely a "re-branding" of sports betting, and in response to claims that DFS constitutes a game of skill, he argued that "a few good players in a poker tournament may rise to the top based on their skill; but the game is still gambling." Schneiderman also acknowledged that the two services had "basic compliance issues" (alluding to the inside information scandal), had associated themselves with gambling-oriented entities, and that DraftKings had accepted entry fees from users in states where it argued that DFS was illegal.[57][94] The Attorney General also issued a subpoena for information from Yahoo! in regards to its own daily fantasy offerings.[57] FanDuel stated that it would comply with the order and restrict participation by residents of New York, while DraftKings stated that it would continue to serve them, arguing that Schneiderman's decision was based on an "incomplete understanding of the facts about how our business operates and a fundamental misinterpretation and misapplication of the law".[57][90]

During hearings on November 25, 2015, Judge Manuel J. Mendez disputed assertions by the services that a player's choice of athletes represents "control or influence" over the outcome, stating that players are ultimately "relying on someone else's skill" to determine an outcome.[90] On December 11, 2015, the temporary injunction was granted, forbidding DraftKings and FanDuel from "accepting entry fees, wagers or bets" from residents of New York state.[67] Mandez argued that "the payment of an 'entry fee' as high as $10,600 on one or more contests daily could certainly be deemed risking 'something of value'." He also ruled that the UIGEA "has no corresponding authority under New York State law".[76][89] However, Mandez granted a temporary stay following requests for an appeal.[95] On December 31, 2015—prior to an appeals court on whether they may continue to operate during the lawsuit, the Attorney General amended the lawsuit to demand that the two companies pay restitution—including the return of all money collected from customers in New York State. Schneiderman also acknowledged the services' deceptive advertising practices, such as "convoluted" first deposit bonuses.[96]

DraftKings' and FanDuel's stay was granted in January 2016, meaning that they may continue to service New York residents for the time being, pending the outcome of the appeal.[97] However, on February 5, 2016, Citigroup announced that it would no longer process payments for DraftKings and FanDuel made by residents of New York State "pending a final decision by the courts".[98]

The Boston Globe believed that a ruling on the legality of DFS in New York State would have industry-wide implications, as it is one of the largest markets for these services.[78] Writing for The New Yorker, James Surowiecki believed that it was hypocritical for the state of New York to campaign against daily fantasy sports—which, in an op-ed, the Attorney General classified as a "particularly pernicious" activity, as the state already sponsors and/or endorses other forms of legal gambling based purely on chance rather than a mix of chance and skill, such as the state lottery, casinos, and horse racing. Surowiecki argued that "given the absence of a good argument for why daily fantasy should be illegal in New York, while the lottery and racetrack betting and casinos are not, the best strategy that Draft Kings and Fan Duel [sic] could pursue might be to get the State Legislature to eliminate the inconsistency and explicitly legalize them."[99]

Opinions by leagues

The NCAA considers all paid fantasy games—including daily fantasy—to fall under its prohibition of sports wagering by student athletes, punishable by ineligibility to participate in NCAA-sanctioned athletics for one year. The NCAA has also prohibited commercials for daily fantasy services from being broadcast during telecasts of its tournaments.[100][101] In August 2015, the NCAA, along with ten athletic conferences, jointly discouraged the operation of daily fantasy games involving college sports, considering them to be inconsistent with the NCAA's values and policies. The SEC has had discussions with its broadcast partners in an attempt to discourage the advertising of daily fantasy games during its telecasts, while Big Ten Network and Pac-12 Network prohibit advertising for daily fantasy games involving college sports.[100] On December 9, 2015, it was reported that ESPN had similarly agreed not to air advertising for daily fantasy services during telecasts of the College Football Playoff.[102]

The NFL does not outright ban participation in paid and/or daily fantasy sports games by its players and staff, but does restrict how much one may win in such games.[103]

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