This past weekend was the end of the college basketball season and also marked the last time that FanDuel and DraftKings would offer daily fantasy sports contests involving college sports. Late last week, the brands announced that the championship game today will be the last time the operators will offer contests in the college sports genre. The NCAA final taking place tonight will mark the end of college coverage in DFS.
Wagering on college sports has always been controversial so it is not totally surprising that DFS operators are no longer going to offer such contests, especially considering several states are qualifying DFS gaming as illegal gaming and asking operators to cease operations within their borders.
While college contests were available at DFS sites, NFL games are much more popular and make up a larger portion of the market. The sites will be hurt by the change but not affected in the overal aspect of DFS gaming. FanDuel released a statement on the change by stating the after months of productive conversations with the NCAA and state legislators, the brand has a better understanding the concerns of fantasy sports contests based on the amateur athletics. The company felt their best path moving forward would be to suspend such offerings on the college contests pending resolution on the issue with state legislators.
FanDuel further stated that the home state of their company, New York, as well as the NCAA’s home state, Indiana were both the first to take up the debate of DFS. New York is considering fantasy sports laws for consumer protection while Indiana has already passed legislation in regards to the DFS industry. There are carve-outs in legislation for both states that include amateur sports being banned. FanDuel supports these efforts and will remain active in supporting the bills containing the same type of provisions going forward.
Mark Emmert is the President of the NCAA, who spoke with ESPN stating that the NCAA appreciates and commends DraftKings and FanDuel in their action to stop offering contests involving high school, college and youth sports.
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