Lawsuits Challenge Legality of Fantasy Sports Contests: DraftDay.com Sued
The same attorney who filed suit against fantasy sports site FanDuel.com now has a suit against competitor Draftday.com.
Christopher Langone is seeking to recover monies from San Antonio, Texas resident, who allegedly won a substantial amount of money while playing in daily fantasy contests on the DraftDay.com site.
Unlike the first suit against FanDuel.com, which was delayed due to jurisdiction issues, the second suit was filed in the jurisdiction where DraftDay.com is located.
Gambling911.com founder, Chris Costigan, actually set the jurisdiction precedent back in 2011 with the suit Atiyeh vs. Tostigan.
Getting beyond the jurisdiction issue, Langone must also prove that daily fantasy sports contests involve a greater degree of chance than skill in order for his lawsuit to succeed.
The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled that fantasy sports games involve predominantly skill. However, Langone’s suit seeks to distinguish between traditional season long fantasy sports games and the so-called fantasy contests offered by the likes of FanDuel and DraftDay.com.
Professor Marc Edelman, writing for Forbes.com, notes:
(I)t seems hard to imagine that any daily fantasy sports contest fits as neatly into such a safe haven as traditional fantasy sports. Reason being, only traditional fantasy sports allow contestants to “trad[e] players over the course of the season.” In addition, the number of iterations in traditional fantasy sports games is far greater than in daily games – reducing the impact of a single act of randomness on the overall results.
Fantasy sports specifically were exempt from a 2006 federal law forbidding wagers on the Internet.
- Alejandro Botticelli, Gambling911.com
