Once the NCAA basketball tournament is concluded next week, DraftKings and FanDuel will drop out of the college game. On Thursday, the NCAA confirmed, via ESPN, that the DFS sites also would stop taking action on all college sports.
Daily fantasy sports sites like DraftKings and FanDuel have been on a losing streak lately with both sites agreeing to pull out of New York and with FanDuel no longer operating paid games in Texas.
“We appreciate and commend DraftKings and FanDuel’s action to stop offering contests involving college, high school and youth sports,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement. “We will work diligently with our member schools over the coming year to ensure such amateur sports ‘carve outs’ are included in pending states’ legislation.”
ESPN notes that college football and college basketball only represent 3 percent of FanDuel’s revenue and that the NFL market is 10 to 20 times larger than that of college football for DraftKings.
But this latest development continues a run of mostly bad news for the DFS sites, an avalanche that began in October when a DraftKings content provider won $350,000 on FanDuel the same week he accidentally leaked inside information that would have helped him succeed in his betting.
While the sites won a victory when the state of Virginia legalized daily fantasy sites and though the legislatures in other states like Washington and Maryland are trying to determine their relationships with DFS sites, the industry is in a state of flux.
Meanwhile, ESPN writes that more than 30 states are considering fantasy sports legislation this year.
“The future of fantasy sports will be defined in those state governments, where leaders are hearing a resounding call from their constituents who want to continue to play the games they love,” FanDuel said in a statement. “The action we are seeing in states across the country makes it clear: the future is bright for the millions and millions of people who play fantasy sports.”
Just not if you enjoy wagering on amateurs.
