DraftKings CEO Jason Robins Says Fantasy Sports Similar To Casino’s
A number of online gambling establishments who specialised in online poker and online casino games are now looking at venturing into the daily fantasy sports market. DraftKings and FanDuel are the two biggest players in the daily fantasy sports market and dominate over ninety percent of the market.
The market has grown at a rapid pace during the last 12 months and gaming analysts believe that the daily fantasy sports market will continue to expand in 2016. DraftKings CEO Jason Robins had earlier described daily fantasy sports as a ‘game of skill’ at the Global Gaming Expo in September 2015 and did not constitute typical gambling.
The company recently tried to launch into the Nevada market but regulators decided to ban the company from launching as the authorities believe that daily fantasy sports is similar to betting.
The attorney general’s office in Nevada researched the market and found a thread on Reddit.com that was posted three years earlier by Robins when he was describing how he started his company. In the thread, Robbins mentions that daily fantasy sports website is “almost identical to a casino” and the authorities used this description to bolster their case that daily fantasy sports is a form of betting and hence DraftKings could only enter Nevada once it obtained a license.
DraftKings also applied to gain entry into the United Kingdom and had to go through the usual process of applying for a gaming license. The attorney general’s office sent a memo to the Nevada Gaming Control Board stating that while Robins claims it’s a ‘game of skill’ he had described his website as one that is similar to a casino and engages in betting. The memo also states that while DraftKings wants to remain unregulated in the U.S, it had applied for a license in the U.K which was setting two different standards.
In a statement, Brin Gibson, chief deputy attorney for gaming and government affairs said
In short, daily fantasy sports constitute sports pools and gambling games. They may also constitute lotteries, depending on the test applied by the Nevada Supreme Court. As a result, pay-to-play daily fantasy sports cannot be offered in Nevada without licensure. It appears that DraftKings recognizes the appearance of inconsistency between its position that it should be unregulated in the United States and its decision to submit to gaming regulation in the United Kingdom
Both DraftKings and FanDuel have agreed to abide by the ban imposed by Nevada.
