Cantor Affiliate Sues DraftKings And FanDuel Over Betting Patents

Interactive Games LLC has opened a new legal fight against DraftKings and FanDuel, putting core mobile betting tech at the center of the case. The lawsuits target features every regulated operator depends on, while also dragging in a political angle because Howard Lutnick co-invented two of the patents before taking office as US Commerce Secretary.

Good to Know

• Interactive Games filed one lawsuit against DraftKings in Massachusetts and another against FanDuel and Betfair in New Jersey on April 2.
• The five patents cover mobile gambling systems tied to identity checks, geolocation, and app security.
• Reuters reported that Interactive Games had already sued DraftKings in an earlier patent case, showing a longer IP strategy around the old Cantor Gaming portfolio.

Core Mobile Betting Tech Now Sits In Court

DraftKings and FanDuel are used to fighting state regulators, tax debates, and market-share battles. Now both companies face a different kind of pressure. Interactive Games LLC, tied to Cantor Fitzgerald, has sued them in federal court and says their platforms use protected mobile gambling technology without permission.

The patents are not about side tools or fringe products. Interactive Games says they cover systems that verify who a user is, confirm where that user is located, and help stop tampering inside smartphone gambling apps. In the US market, those functions sit at the heart of legal mobile wagering. No licensed sportsbook or casino app can really operate without identity verification and geolocation controls.

According to the filings, DraftKings products named in the case include sportsbook, casino, fantasy sports, and other betting platforms. The complaint against FanDuel makes similar claims and also names parent company Betfair. As the cases develop, discovery should show which parts of the platforms Interactive Games believes cross the line.

A political thread runs through the case too. Two of the five patents were co-invented by Howard Lutnick when he was still running Cantor Fitzgerald. Reuters reported that Lutnick later stepped down from roles at Cantor Fitzgerald and Interactive Games and divested his business interests after taking office. Even so, a lawsuit built around patents tied to a sitting Commerce Secretary gives the dispute a layer most patent cases do not have.

That detail matters for another reason. The US Patent and Trademark Office sits under the Commerce Department. Reuters noted that any patent review process involving inventions tied to Lutnick could raise unusual conflict questions, even if he has no disclosed ongoing interest in the litigation itself.

Interactive Games is also not new to this lane. Reuters said the company had filed an earlier patent case against DraftKings years ago, well before mobile sports betting reached current scale across the country. That history points to a longer effort to defend technology created during Cantor Gaming days in Nevada.

For the industry, timing is part of the story. DraftKings and FanDuel still hold the biggest positions in online sports betting across much of the US, so any patent case aimed at core mobile systems lands on the two names with the most at stake. Neither company had publicly answered the new suits as of the filing date cited by Reuters.