DFS News: Bills in the Virginias and Prohibition Efforts
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This week’s daily fantasy sports roundup brings only good news for DFS fans. Legalization bills made progress in both Virginia and West Virginia, and Mark Cuban penned an interesting column in which he tells politicians “good luck killing fantasy sports.”
West Virginia Fantasy Sports Bill
On February 18th, Senate Bill 529 passed a Senate vote by 18-16 in West Virginia. The bill is only a few pages long as all it does is amend the state’s code to exempt fantasy sports in West Virginia from the definition of illegal gambling. SB 529 provides a UIGEA-compliant definition of fantasy sports contests and then excludes those from the state’s definition of gambling.
For a real money fantasy contest to be considered legal in West Virginia, it must meet the following requirements:
- Prizes are made known to all participants in advance
- Winning outcomes are the result of the statistical results of individuals participating in athletic contests
- Winning outcomes are not based on the score, point spread or performance of a single player, team or match
The bill doesn’t touch regulation at all. Presumably, that’ll come later if the state ever decides it’s time to offer some oversight over the industry. Until then, the West Virginia daily fantasy sports industry will remain self-regulated. The bill will next go to the House of Delegates for a vote.
Virginia Fantasy Sports Regulation Bill Heads to the Governor’s Desk
A bill that seeks to legalize and regulate daily fantasy sports in Virginia just made it all the way to the governor’s desk in Virginia. This is an important update because the passage of this bill would make Virginia the first state ever to pass a comprehensive legalization/regulation bill into law.
Senate Bill 646 checks in at about four typed pages in length. If passed, SB 646 would:
- Define what constitutes a legal fantasy sports contest (using the same UIGEA definition that we’ve seen so many states fall back on recently)
- Daily Fantasy sports sites in Virginia must register with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
- Fantasy sports operators must pay an initial registration fee of $50,000
The bill also lays out a number of responsibilities for fantasy site operators. These include:
- Limiting play to customers aged 18 or older
- Prevent sharing of confidential information that could affect fantasy contest play with third parties until the information is made publicly available
- Allow individuals to restrict themselves from entering fantasy contests
- Disclose and enforce the number of entries a single participant may enter into any one contest
- Hold all customer funds in a segregated account
Mark Cuban Goes Off on Politicians Opposed to Fantasy Sports
Yesterday, Mark Cuban penned a column for USA Today in which he explains why it would be wrong and nearly impossible to prohibit fantasy sports in the United States. I recommend you read the whole thing, but here are the key takeaways:
- Mark Cuban believes in the future of fantasy sports and has already invested in two companies within the past year
- Fantasy sports create value: new businesses are forming (everything from DFS sites to supplementary technology innovations) AND they increase sports fans’ engagement
- Fantasy sports is a game of skill. It’s similar to what mark Cuban does in managing an NBA team. He must collect data, analyze it, make predictions and then invest in players. Often times it doesn’t pay off, but when it does, it pays off in a big way – just like it does for fantasy sports players
- Final note to politicians: good luck killing fantasy sports
Bonus News: DraftKings Introducing $4 Million Guaranteed PGA Contest
DraftKings DFS has announced a massive new PGA contest in advance of the Masters on April 7th. The contest comes with a guaranteed prize pool of $4,000,000 with an entry fee of just $20. And if things are tight on the bankroll front, you can compete in satellite contests for as little as $0.25 and win a seat for free.
First place in the PGA Millionaire Maker will net you a cool $1,000,000. Prizes are paid out all the way down to 48,733rd place, so there is plenty of money to be made even if you don’t finish in the top spot. Despite all the legality questions the industry faces across the nation, fantasy golf is still alive and well.
Wes Burns has more than a decade’s worth of experience as a writer, researcher and analyst in the legal gambling industry and is co-founder of BettingUSA.com. As a former professional online poker player, Wes approaches his work from the viewpoint of players.
