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- Company to stop offering contests on Thursday May 26
- SportsLock.com co-founder: ‘It ‘s so hard to be an independent operator right now”
- Customers funds must be withdrawn by May 31
- Some customers might not be aware of closure until they are ready to start playing again come Football season
Another casualty in the beleaguered Daily Fantasy Sports sector this week as Chicago-based SportsLock.com has announced it will cease offering contests for cash effective May 26.
SportsLock co-founder Todd Heyden told Crain’s Chicago the cost of operating its current game platform and uncertainty among its payment processors, credit card companies and investors about the legal obstacles ahead forced the company to suspend its offering.
"It's so hard to be an independent operator right now," Heyden said, noting that Illinois accounts for more of SportsLock's roughly 35,000 users than any other state. "The legality are right now hospitalizing and killing every independent operator."
The company informed its users they must withdraw funds by May 31, however, many of SportsLock customers will likely not be made aware of this closure until late summer when the new NFL season is set to begin.
"Since launching our first product more than 3 years ago, our mission has been to deliver innovative, high quality mobile experiences to the fantasy sports industry," the statement said. "Over the last 8 months, the pace at which we like to operate has been hindered by the legal hurdles currently hospitalizing our space. Taking everything into consideration, we decided to pull the app out of the app store while we focus on building the next version of SportsLock."
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
