Daily fantasy sports websites are growing in popularity more and more everyday. It’s hard to escape the onslaught of ads during sporting events by the two main companies in the industry, Fanduel and Draftkings. Recently there has been controversy as to whether daily fantasy should be considered gambling, but it has been determined that it is a “game of skill rather than chance,” which deems it legal under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.
The NCAA however, still isn’t convinced. The NCAA recently sent letters to Fanduel and Draftkings requesting they stop offering college games. Fanduel’s chief legal counsel, Christian Genetski, sent a letter to the NCAA executive vice president Mark Lewis on Monday denying their request.
“We do not plan to make changes to our games at this time, and certainly not without further conversations with you,” said Genetski in the letter obtained by Darren Rovell of Espn.com. Genetski also stated that the NCAA has no legal basis for attempting to force FanDuel to stop its college games because names, when attached to statistics, aren’t subject to the approval of the athletes and “cannot implicate their amateur status.”
The NCAA has already said it will not allow Fanduel and Draftkings to run ads during March Madness, however the NCAA has no jurisdiction over the college football bowl system or the College Football PLayoffs. The battle between the NCAA and daily fantasy seems far from over.