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Fantasy Draft has become the biggest craze in the US, with DraftKings and FanDuel having taken a huge part of the market in the states and spend several hundred millions on campaigns across all US related medias. They even paid fortunes to sportsstars to appear in their ads and branded themselves as being a game of skill and not gambling.
Unfortunately it seems that many states in the US doesn’t agree on that sentiment, with several states now blocking the popular game and look into if the companies have been breaching the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that was signed in 2006.
One of the companies that was about to enter the market was Amaya Gaming’s StarsDraft, but they will now limit their operations in most US states following this recent development. The company has just been granted access back into the US with their Pokerstars brand, after several years of legal work, and doesn’t wish to throw it all away in a new case where nobody really know where they stand.
“We have previously called for state regulation and licensing of DFS to ensure consumer protection and strict government oversight of operators. Prior to the launch of StarsDraft and based on a thorough review of the regulatory environment at the time, Amaya decided not to launch StarsDraft in jurisdictions where many of our competitors continue to operate today, including Michigan. We recently withdrew from Florida and Nevada, where last week the respected Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) determined that DFS operators in that State are required to obtain a gaming license from the NGCB. Amaya supports the decision by the NGCB, and believes that it is prudent to limit the StarsDraft offering until such time as more states adopt a clear stance on daily fantasy sports.” Eric Hollreiser, VP of Corporate Communications at Amaya Gaming said in a press release.
Amaya will continue to monitor the legal guidelines in the US to see which markets they can enter and which they may have to pull from. It will be highly in favour for them if the market gets regulated, but it may take several years before it can happen.