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Daily Fantasy Sports: Thoughts On The Industry

By Danny Norris

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Because New York’s attempt to ban DraftKings and FanDuel is in the news again, ProGolfNow is highlighting this article we published in November 2015.

Daily fantasy sports sites like DraftKings and FanDuel have been in the news a lot lately.

Unfortunately, it’s been mostly negative which has put daily fantasy sports sites in a very bad light. Which kind of debunks the whole adage of there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

However, this latest bit of news has been the most significant to date. This is one of those situations where I feel the need to say something, but I’m not quite sure how to start or how exactly I want to articulate it, so bear with me on this.

I suppose I’ll try to just quickly touch upon all the key details to the latest news to start with.

This week, New York’s Attorney General, Eric T. Schneiderman, took it upon himself to ban all DFS sites in New York.

Per ESPN’s David Purdum and Darren Rovell this is the statement Schneiderman made on Tuesday:

"“Our investigation has found that, unlike traditional fantasy sports, daily fantasy sports companies are engaged in illegal gambling under New York law, causing the same kinds of social and economic harms as other forms of illegal gambling and misleading New York consumers. Daily fantasy sports is neither victimless nor harmless, and it is clear that DraftKings and FanDuel are the leaders of a massive, multi-billion-dollar scheme intended to evade the law and fleece sports fans across the country. Today we have sent a clear message: not in New York and not on my watch.”"

I can’t help but shake my head, chuckle, and then sigh. This is ironic on so many levels. The thing that gets me is that the state of New York has the audacity to say that daily fantasy sports is, in fact, gambling, takes no skill, and is a game of chance.

Yet, the state of New York will have no problem selling you a powerball ticket. But, yeah, that’s not gambling. That’s not a game of chance. Right.

As you might expect, FanDuel and DraftKings both disagreed with this ruling and they are going to court. They claim Schneiderman overstepped his bounds and that DFS is not a game of chance, but a game of skill.

If the court sides with Schneiderman, then you would have to think that other states will follow suit and DFS will be illegal. That would mean that this is the end of daily fantasy sports as we know it.

Having said that, while they might be illegal in the United States DFS sites will still live on. They will just move their operation offshores.

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It’s one of those things that just because someone or a group of people don’t like something, that doesn’t mean it still won’t exist in some capacity.

Take for example, marijuana and the whole war on drugs crusade. To be clear, whether or not you are for or against the use of marijuana doesn’t matter. However you feel, that’s your opinion.

The fact of the matter is, though, the war on drugs was a colossal failure. It was a massive waste of money and people still got their hands on marijuana. That’s just a fact.

If daily fantasy sports were to be banned completely in the U.S. the same scenario would happen. Daily fantasy sports sites would still exist and people would still play them. There is money to be made and a massive market out there.

This type of behavior isn’t out of the ordinary for the state of New York, though. According to freedom in the 50 states.com New York is the least free state in the Union. So, nothing surprising there.

I come from a mindset that you should be able to do whatever you want, so long as you don’t harm anyone else in the process.

Our freedoms shouldn’t be taken for granted and they shouldn’t be taken away. We have rules in place that forbid that sort of thing. Which, unfortunately, has kind of been swept to the side and chipped away, as well.

Anyway, the point being, gambling should be 100% legal. No doubt about it. Nobody should be able to tell you how you should or how you need to spend your money. Unfortunately, gambling isn’t legal everywhere and we don’t live in that type of society.

Now onto the law of daily fantasy sports. Is DFS gambling? On a technical level, of course it is. But, isn’t everything a gamble? Life itself is a gamble.

When you walk across the street, there’s a chance that you may get hit by a car. When you eat at a fast food joint you are taking the chance of getting food poisoning.

Now, granted, money isn’t involved in these particular situations. So, let’s get back to the powerball lottery example.

When you buy a lotto ticket, money is being exchanged with the chance of hitting it big. When you play daily fantasy sports you are looking to make money and make a profit.

Herein lies the difference between daily fantasy sports and a powerball lottery. DFS is a skill game while the lottery is a luck game.

In DFS there is skill involved. Do you need luck? Of course. Again, life itself is a gamble and you need luck in life, in general. But, is there skill involved? Absolutely.

There is a reason why there are DFS pros in the industry. There is a reason why folks have been able to do DFS for a living. And it isn’t because they are getting lucky over and over and over again.

Take a look around the internet. If DFS were strictly luck based then why are fantasy sports articles popular? Why are some of the most popular podcasts and radio broadcasts fantasy sports based? It’s because people want and seek out information and try to get any edge they can.

If there was no skill involved there wouldn’t be a need for fantasy sports articles, and fantasy sports podcasts. There would be no market for this type of information.

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That’s why you don’t see powerball lottery articles. That’s why you don’t hear people talking about a powerball lottery on radio broadcasts. There’s nothing to talk about. There is no edge. It’s a game of chance; just one big luck box where you punch in some numbers and that’s it. It is 100% luck and no skill.

That’s the difference between the two and why daily fantasy sports is not a game of chance, but a game of skill and it should be legal. Regulate it all you want, I’m perfectly fine with that, but you should not deprive people of the opportunity to play daily fantasy sports.

What to do about it: I’ll wrap this up, but I want to make a quick reminder, 2016 is coming up and as we all know (or should know) it’s an election year.

We have the whole pageantry of the presidential election this year. That’s all fine and dandy, but what’s most important is getting out and voting on a local level.

The senators, congressmen, etc. in your respective state are the ones that have an impact on your daily lives. That’s where your attention in terms of politics should be towards.

If you have someone running for a political position who is vehemently opposed to daily fantasy sports, you have to get out and vote.

Sitting on the sidelines and not saying anything is the worst thing you can do. I know, it’s a two-party system, the system is rigged, nothing changes, etc. I get all that, but if you care about DFS and you don’t do anything to keep it you are part of the problem. Don’t be part of the problem.

If you care about daily fantasy sports, support the candidates that aren’t necessarily for daily fantasy sports, but they support the legality of DFS.

Next: Predicting Winners for the 2016 Major Championships

They support the idea of freedom and you having the choice on what you can. Don’t support anti-DFS candidates like the Attorney General of New York.

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