The War on PrizePicks: Founder Says Other Companies Engaging in 'Anti-Competitive Strategy'

PrizePicks CEO and co-founder Adam Wexler lashed out at sportsbooks over the weekend as he claims some are working to rid the U.S. market of Daily Fantasy Sports sites like his.

PrizePicks is now the most dowloaded app in the DFS industry, doubling that of its nearest competitor, Underdog Fantasy.

Some states are warning PrizePicks and others to stop offering their pick'em model as it too closely resembles player prop bet parlays.

Last month, the Florida Gaming Control Commission has sent cease-and-desist letters to Underdog Fantasy, PrizePicks, and Betr regarding their Florida fantasy sports offerings.

Similarly, New York regulators have agreed to ban fantasy sports games that have the effect of mirroring player prop bets offered by sportsbooks.

"Imagine a football season without fantasy sports -- that's pretty tough for most American sports fans at this point. During my five year tenure on the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association's Board of Directors, I worked with other board members to craft the vision ("connecting fans to the sports the love"), mission ("to support fantasy sports, sports gaming and new forms of fan engagement") and values (pro-business, embrace innovation, future-focused, support legal game play, consumer protection). During my nine year journey in the fantasy sports industry across three distinct fantasy products (with more coming soon), our business epitomizes everything the trade association laid out. As the market leader in real-money fantasy sports, we are helping lead a wave of great innovation at @PrizePicks, and it's a shame that incumbents have chosen an aggressive anti-competitive strategy across the country where the biggest losers stand to be the sports fans, who we should all be serving."

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Joe Brennan, Jr, who is now chairperson of the newly launched Prime Sports, disagreed with Wexler's assessment. 

Brennan Jr., a Sports Betting Hall of Fame inductee, was part of a business group called IMEGA, which pushed for legalized sports gambling on the Internet. Through his and others efforts the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), thus paving the way for states to begin regulating sports betting.

"Conflating imaginary woes of fantasy sports fans with those of companies that pushed past the legal definitions of what constituted 'fantasy' into unregulated sports betting is BS," Brennan Jr. said via his Twitter page.

"If they played by the rules, there would’ve been no problem."

Others have questioned PrizePicks offerings.

Josh @TheRealJosh05 had this to say via Twitter in response to Wexler:

"Fantasy sports is completely different than what you offer. Underdog is also under attack, but UD also offers best ball fantasy football.  You're offering just parlay o/u props.  That's not fantasy football."

Sav44 @Sav4478 agreed.

"How are you still arguing this, fantasy sports is player vs player, not player vs house."

Barry @whobutmyles was a little less diplomatic in his response.

"It’s not Fantsay you dweeb. Wagers vs the house it’s the definition of gambling dork."

Today, PrizePicks is advertising nearly as much as DraftKings and FanDuel during football games, as is Underdog Fantasy.

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com