The daily fantasy sports industry continues its fight for survival in the US with battles in the Colorado and Texas statehouses. On another front, daily fantasy sports operators lost their bid to advertise on NBA jerseys.
Colorado Bill Gets High Profile Supporter
In Colorado, lawmakers considering HB 16-404, which would create an office of fantasy sports to regulate and monitor the industry, were lobbied by a high profile supporter, former Denver Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley.
Stokley says the new bill, which the industry supports, will keep DFS safe for the state’s 800,000 fantasy sports players. (It’s worth noting that 800,000 Coloradans play all fantasy sports not just DFS.)
The bill has strong support in the House of Representatives and is moving forward to Senate consideration.
Texas AG Fires Back
In Texas, daily fantasy sports giant DraftKings is locked in an ugly legal battle with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Earlier this year Paxton issued an opinion in which he suggested that daily fantasy sports constituted illegal gambling. That sent FanDuel scrambling from the Lone Star State but DraftKings challenged the opinion by filing a lawsuit against Paxton.
Paxton, whose had legal problems of his own, fired back with a lawsuit of his own saying:
This lawsuit reflects a corporation’s attempt to protect its preferred business model: profiting from paid online daily fantasy sports in Texas.
Paxton’s lawsuit claims that DraftKings’ lawsuit was filed in the wrong court and needs to be re-filed.
In short, it looks like Paxton plans on making life very difficult for daily fantasy sports operators.
No DFS NBA Jersey Advertising
Finally, if you were hoping to own a Lebron James jersey that’s emblazoned with a FanDuel logo, we’ve got some bad news. The NBA recently ruled that while teams will be able to sell corporate logo space on their jerseys in 2017-2018, daily fantasy sports operators will be barred from the process.
DFS operators will still be able to sponsor teams and named spaces in arenas, but the jersey space is strictly off limits.