Indiana Daily Fantasy Sports Sites

Six Indiana DFS sites hold IGC licenses:

The Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) provides effective oversight over daily fantasy sports in the Hoosier State, and it only issues licenses to operators it deems qualified following exhaustive background investigations.

Indiana’s non-refundable $50,000 DFS license application fee has prevented some smaller but well-run operators from entering the market, which is unfortunate because there are some excellent alternatives to the nation’s most prominent operators. However, the high licensing fee and intense licensing process dissuades unserious fantasy sites from even applying.

Daily fantasy sports sites in Indiana willing to pay the fee must complete an application that requires them to submit detailed plans covering the following subject areas:

• An overall description of the fantasy platform
• Types of games it intends to offer
• Verifying customers’ ages and locations
• Protecting customers’ financial and identity information
• Preventing its ads from appearing in mediums aimed at juveniles
• Prohibiting minors and other restricted persons from participating
• Allowing customers to self-exclude
• Preventing players from entering more than the maximum number of allowed entries into DFS contests

Indiana DFS license applications also request information about each operator’s key personnel, potential conflicts of interest, and much more. In short, fans can play daily fantasy online with operators that have been thoroughly investigated by state regulators.

Each of BettingUSA’s recommended Indiana daily fantasy sports apps hold an IGC license, but readers can verify licenses here.

Indiana Fantasy Sports Law

Indiana was an early mover on the daily fantasy front as the second state in the nation to pass legislation legalizing and regulating DFS sites.

Lawmakers introduced SB 339 in January 2016, compromised on licensing fees and other matters, and passed it two months later. The bill earned then-Governor Pence’s signature, making Indiana second only to Virginia in passing a daily fantasy law.

The law requires Indiana daily fantasy sports sites to register with the Paid Fantasy Sports Division and pay a $50,000 application fee and a $5,000 annual renewal fee.

As is the case in other states, Indiana law uses the UIGEA-compliant definition of daily fantasy sports in its definition of what constitutes a legal contest:

• The values of all prizes and awards are made known to participants in advance of the contest
• All winning outcomes reflect the relative knowledge and skill of the game participants and are determined predominantly by accumulated statistical results of the performance of individuals, including athletes in the case of sporting events
• No winning outcome is based on the score, point spread, or performance of any single team or combination of teams, or solely on any single performance of an individual athlete or player in any single event

The law also established the Fantasy Sports Division within the Indiana Gaming Commission to oversee the licensing and operation of fantasy sports sites. Per state law, the division has all the powers and duties necessary to consider applicants, investigate alleged violations of the law, revoke and suspend or renew licenses, and take any “reasonable or appropriate action to enforce” the law.

Additional regulations adopted by the IGC fill in even more details regarding the legal operations of all licensed fantasy sports sites in Indiana. Many of the rules deal with consumer protection by requiring operators to:

• Maintain extensive records of their interactions with customers
• Undergo annual financial audits
• Prevent athletes, officials, employees, and anyone else who could influence a sporting event from participating in fantasy contests involving that event
• Keep operational funds separate from customers’ funds
• Honor all withdrawal requests within five days
• Provide a method for customers to self-exclude from playing fantasy sports

Fans can read Indiana’s daily fantasy laws in full at these links:

• IC § 4-33-24: Indiana Code on Paid Fantasy Sports
• 68 IAC 26: Additional Fantasy Sports Regulations

Indiana Daily Fantasy Sports FAQ