Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) operators are asking Illinois lawmakers to take it easy on them and not give preferential treatment to sportsbooks. The requests were made last week at a meeting of the Illinois Senate Gaming, Wagering and Racing Committee where the topic of DFS legalization was on the agenda.
Illinois lawmakers are currently considering two separate bill that would bring regulated DFS into the Lincoln State gaming ecosystem, Sen. Lakesia Collins’ SB 1224 and Sen. Bill Cunningham’s SB 2145. Under the terms of SB 1224, both peer-to-peer (P2P) and against-the-house contests would be legal and taxed in the 10-15 percent range. If SB 2145 passes, only P2P action would be allowed and it would be taxed at 40 percent.
PrizePicks representative Shane Saum addressed the gathered lawmakers and stressed the idea that against the house DFS is not the same as regular sports betting. He also pointed out that that against the house action is much more popular with consumers than P2P. (Saum likely didn’t point out that’s likely because betting against the house is nearly identical to traditional sports betting.
“The example we always give folks is you can put a glass of orange juice next to a mimosa, and they may look alike, but they are definitely not the same,” Saum explained as an example of the difference between DFS and standard sports betting.
Other DFS operators lobbied the lawmakers for lower licensing fees for their products versus traditional sportsbooks. They pointed out that they are generally smaller companies who maybe can’t afford a $500,000 application fee.