New York Daily Fantasy Sports

New York Daily Fantasy Sports Sites

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Daily fantasy sports sites must acquire New York State Gaming Commission permits before offering real-money contests within state lines.

The Gaming Commission website provides a list of operators that received permits shortly after New York legalized fantasy sports, but it hasn’t updated the list since. As a result, the list includes multiple fantasy sports sites that have either gone out of business or exited the New York market and doesn’t include operators that have entered the market more recently.

However, readers can see the following table for a current lineup of active New York daily fantasy sports sites:

New York DFS Sites
Recommended by BettingUSA
Underdog Fantasy New York
OwnersBox New York
FanDuel DFS New York
DraftKings DFS New York
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Also Available
Yahoo Fantasy New York
DataForce Fantasy Football New York
RealTime Fantasy Sports New York
Fantasy Football Players Championship New York
Fantrax New York
SportsHub Games Network New York
Masters Fantasy Leagues New York
FullTime Fantasy Sports New York

The New York State Gaming Commission banned pick’em fantasy sports contests in October 2023.

All pick’em fantasy sports sites except Underdog Fantasy have since left the New York market. Underdog Fantasy remains open to New York customers but has not explained its rationale for remaining.

Previously, apps like PrizePicks offered fantasy prop-style contests in which users selected “more” or “less” on athletes’ projected totals in stats like rushing yards, three-pointers, and so on for fixed payouts.

The New York State Gaming Commission implemented the ban on pick’em fantasy sports by updating its DFS regulations to state:

Contests shall not be based on proposition betting or contests that have the effect of mimicking proposition betting. Contests in which a contestant must choose, directly or indirectly, whether an athlete or a single team will surpass an identified statistical achievement, such as points scored, are prohibited.

Pick’em fantasy sites Sleeper, Thrive Fantasy, and PrizePicks left the New York market at various points after the rule update. PrizePicks held out the longest of the three as it held discussions with the NYS Gaming Commission but ceased its New York operations in February 2024.

In an e-mail to customers, PrizePicks announced its decision to suspend all paid fantasy contests in New York and replace them with free-to-play contests featuring real cash prizes. Additionally, PrizePicks announced it is in the process of acquiring a license in New York that will allow the company to launch its peer-to-peer pick’em product, PrizePicks Arena.

PrizePicks also reached a settlement agreement with the NYS Gaming Commission to pay a nearly $15 million fine for offering fantasy sports contests in New York without ever acquiring a license. As a part of the settlement agreement, PrizePicks will remain eligible for a New York fantasy sports license.

New York Fantasy Sports Law

New York lawmakers established the ground rules for regulating daily fantasy sports via legislation approved in 2016. The 2016 law put the New York State Gaming Commission in charge of regulating fantasy sports, registering operators, and drafting additional regulations as needed.

State law establishes a minimum age of 18 to participate in fantasy sports games, prohibits operators from offering contests on college events, and imposes a 15% tax on gross revenues. Additionally, operators pay a 0.5% tax on revenue, up to a maximum of $50,000 annually.

Tax revenue generated by New York daily fantasy sports sites goes to the state lottery fund to support public education.

Readers can see the New York daily fantasy sports laws in full below:

New York DFS Licenses

Daily fantasy sports sites in New York that wish to offer paid contests in the Empire State must register with the gaming commission and submit the following information for consideration:

  • Full name and principal address of the applicant
  • Personal history disclosure forms for anyone listed as an operator, director, corporate shareholder with a 10%+ equity interest, or individual with a 5%+ equity stake
  • Personal history disclosure forms for operators, officers, directors, and shareholders who own 10% of the fantasy site’s SPE (the special purpose entity that registered fantasy sites must designate to segregate customers’ funds from operational funds)
  • Application forms and any other disclosure forms required by the commission for all applicants
  • Any additional information, documents, and assurances the commission requires
  • Fingerprints taken under the supervision of the commission or any other authority authorized by the commission
  • Statement of the applicant’s assets and liabilities
  • Credit disclosures listing all creditors that hold at least 10% of the applicant’s debt
  • Description and annual number of contests the fantasy operator intends to offer in New York
  • Description of the internal controls New York fantasy sports law requires (see below)

Additionally, the commission will automatically deny registration if the NY DFS applicant or any of its key employees or shareholders has:

  • Knowingly made a false statement or deliberately failed to disclose any information required by the commission
  • Had a daily fantasy sports license revoked in any other state or country
  • Defaulted on any obligation or debt due to any state or political subdivision
  • Knowingly failed to comply with any New York fantasy sports law or regulation

After receiving all required information, the New York State Gaming Commission will process the application and make a determination based on the applicant’s criminal history, experience, character, and general fitness.

NY DFS operator registrations remain in effect for three years, and the New York State Gaming Commission may issue renewals for terms of three years or less at its discretion.

NY Daily Fantasy Sports Required Internal Controls

Registered NY daily fantasy sports sites must submit information about the policies, procedures, and internal controls used to:

  • Prevent prohibited individuals from participating in NY DFS contests
  • Prevent advertising to minors
  • Comply with anti-money-laundering (AML) rules, assess AML risks, and test their AML procedures
  • Prevent, identify, and respond to cybersecurity breaches
  • Ensure the protection of information systems and nonpublic information
  • Identify customers’ physical locations
  • Recover from disasters in a way to minimize customer losses in the event the DFS operator’s platform is rendered inoperable
  • Maintain all technical standards required by the commission

New York DFS Consumer Protection Rules

Regulations intended to safeguard consumers’ money and personal information require New York DFS operators to:

  • Undergo annual third-party financial audits
  • Comply with any commission requests for further audits of their internal controls
  • Maintain complete financial records of their transactions, revenues, expenses, assets, liabilities, and equity
  • Establish a special purpose entity (SPE) to maintain a segregated account for customers’ funds and unpaid prizes
  • Honor withdrawal requests within five business days or ten business days if there is any legally required tax reporting
  • Designate a chief security officer to oversee its security program and submit a biennial report to the commission assessing the program’s effectiveness, procedure exceptions, risks, breaches, and improvement plans
  • Retain five years’ worth of records containing customers’ account information, identity verification methods, agreement to terms and conditions, financial transactions, self-imposed restrictions, dates of registration, and contest entries
  • Retain two years’ worth of records for all customer complaints and a permanent record summarizing all complaints and their outcomes
  • Establish procedures for receiving and responding to all customer complaints
  • Respond promptly and in good faith to all customer complaints; inform the commission of the complaint and response

Prohibited Types of DFS Contests in New York

Registered New York daily fantasy sports sites may not offer contests that are based on:

  • The sore, point spread, or performance of a single sports team
  • Proposition betting or statistical results that mimic proposition betting
  • Any single performance of an individual athlete
  • High school, college, or horse racing events

Additionally, NY DFS apps may not use displays or interfaces to make fantasy contests look like slots, casino games, or anything other than fantasy sports contests.

Prohibited Players

New York DFS apps and websites must prohibit the following categories of people from participating in fantasy contests:

  • Anyone under 18 years of age
  • Members, officers, employees, and agents of fantasy sports sites
  • Immediate family members who live in the same households as members, officers, employees, and agents of fantasy sports sites
  • Individuals with non-public information about NY DFS contests
  • Athletes, sports agents, team employees, referees, and league officials may not enter contests they could impact through their performances
  • Anyone located in a state that prohibits fantasy sports contests

New York daily fantasy sports law considers prizes won by prohibited individuals null and void, and operators may pursue recovery of any prizes won by prohibited individuals.

NY DFS Level Playing Field Regulations

The New York State Gaming Commission has adopted the following regulations to promote a level and competitive playing field for all DFS players. Registered daily fantasy sports sites in New York must:

  • Disclose to users each contest’s prizes and number of entrants
  • Clearly identify highly experienced players* who have entered a contest
  • Offer contests open exclusively to beginners**
  • Receive commission approval before offering new types of contests
  • Provide materials teaching beginners the mechanics of playing, how to find low-cost contests, and how to identify highly-experienced players
  • Take reasonable measures to prevent the sharing of confidential or non-public information that could impact roster selections
  • Not offer auto-drafting tools or services to users
  • Prohibit unauthorized scripts
  • Make any tools or resources such as data streams available to all users
  • Ensure any advice or tips they provide to users are equally available to all customers, optional, not misleading, not conditional upon prior play, and clearly disclose the costs and benefits
  • Not use AI/bots to fill contests

In addition, registered New York daily fantasy sports apps must restrict the maximum number of entries each player may submit into a contest based on the following rules:

  • One entry into any contest with 12 or fewer entries
  • Two entries into any contest with 13-36 entries
  • Three entries into any contest with 37-100 entries

Registered NY DFS operators may allow unlimited entries into some contests if:

  • The number of unlimited-entry contests is less than 2% of the total number of contests the operator holds
  • The operator clearly discloses that the contest allows unlimited entries
  • The cost per entry is $50 or more

*New York DFS law defines highly experienced players as individuals who have entered more than 1,000 contests with a single operator or have won more than three prizes valued at $1,000+ each from a single operator.

**Beginners are users who have entered 50 or fewer contests and do not qualify as highly-experienced users based on prizes won

New York Daily Fantasy Sports Platform Display Rules

Numerous New York DFS regulations specify how registered daily fantasy sports sites and apps display contest information and help screens. To that end, New York DFS operators must:

  • Maintain a page that shows the percentage of contests won by the top 1%, 5%, and 10% of users over each one, three, and six-month period; that page must also show the percentage of users who are net winners and losers
  • Provide complete and unambiguous contest prize information, participation rules, rake percentage, and start time in a color that contrasts with the background to ensure legibility
  • Make contest eligibility, entry fees, rules, and scoring information available upfront
  • Disclose all possible winning positions, rankings, achievements, and prizes upfront
  • Clearly and conspicuously explain all prizes offered in the form of merchandise, annuities, payment plans, or lump sum payments
  • Provide a written form of any contest rules presented aurally
  • Allow players to view all contest types and sort them by sport, entry fee, and maximum number of entries
  • Ensure any stats they provide are accurate and “reasonably updated”
  • Ensure users can readily access their account history going back at least six months
  • Provide a confirmation screen showing all submitted entries, contest results, and payout adjustments

New York DFS Responsible Gambling Regulations

New York daily fantasy sports regulations related to responsible gambling require operators to:

  • Not extend credit to users
  • Submit a problem gambling plan to the commission that outlines the plan’s goals, timetables, and individuals responsible for implementing the plan
  • Submit procedures for identifying and excluding users who display signs of compulsive play, preventing marketing to such users, providing problem gambling resources to such users, and responding to requests from such users
  • Submit procedures for allowing users to self-exclude, preventing self-excluded customers from participating in contests, preventing targeted marketing to self-excluded users, enforcing requested self-exclusion periods, and canceling self-exclusion requests

Advertising Regulations

The New York State Gaming Commission promotes responsible, accurate messaging by requiring NY DFS operators to:

  • Retain records of all advertisements for four years
  • Include problem gambling messaging in all advertisements using minimum font sizes outlined by the commission in §§ 5607.1(b)-(c)
  • Not depict or imply the endorsement of minors, students, or colleges in advertisements
  • Not issue advertisements that imply the viewer has been selected or invited into an exclusive group to win a prize or opportunity
  • Ensure no advertisements contain false or misleading statements
  • Include material facts, terms, conditions, and limitations in all ads
  • Inform and obtain the consent of customers who must deposit funds to take advantage of advertised promotions
  • Not issue advertisements that depict fantasy sports as a form of gambling
  • Ensure advertisements do not contain keywords or visuals designed to attract minors, self-excluded players, and problem gamblers

Fines and Violations

Daily fantasy sports sites in New York are subject to the following fines for violations of DFS laws and regulations:

  • Allowing a minor to participate: $5,000 fine or an amount equal to the entry fee, whichever is greater, for the first violation; $20,000 for the second violation within a year; $25,000 for the third violation within a year of the previous violation; $25,000 fine for the fourth violation within a year and possible suspension or revocation of registration in New York
  • Failure to pay state tax within ten days after the 10th day of the month: fine of at least $100 per day plus interest
  • Failure to pay a fine or fee within 30 days of its due date: fine of at least $100 per day plus interest

Additionally, the New York State Gaming Commission may suspend or revoke DFS operators registrations for the following violations:

  • Fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, or conduct that harms public confidence in the fairness of fantasy sports in New York
  • Violation of NY DFS regulations
  • Failure to keep required records, file any report, or pay taxes
  • Failure to demonstrate financial viability

How New York Legalized Daily Fantasy Sports

New York was one of the most troublesome states for daily fantasy sports for years despite passing legislation to legalize the activity in 2016.

The first New York fantasy sports sites launched long before it was clear if DFS contests were legal under state law. Numerous other DFS sites entered the market and operated for several years without issue, but an unfavorable Attorney General’s opinion and cease-and-desist letters in late 2015 forcibly ejected them from the market.

The crux of the issue came down to New York’s top lawmaker making a fairly compelling argument that the daily fantasy sports model meets the state’s definition of illegal gambling. Major providers FanDuel and DraftKings fought the order, and both experienced several ups and downs over the next year.

New York daily fantasy sports sites received a brief respite from Schneiderman’s cease-and-desist order in early 2016 after an appeals court authorized them to continue operating as the case wound its way through the court system.

Later that year, FanDuel and DraftKings pulled out again as a part of an agreement to help promote a legalization measure progressing through the state legislature.

The legislature approved the bill in June 2016, and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed it into law that August.

The passage of S 8153 legalized daily fantasy sports in New York by declaring them games of skill and not chance. By categorizing DFS contests as games of skill, the legislature avoided the need for a constitutional amendment, which would have required a statewide referendum as required by the New York Constitution for any gambling expansion.

In addition, S 8153 granted the New York State Gaming Commission regulatory powers and oversight duties, introduced a registration requirement for DFS operators, and implemented a 15.5% tax on revenue. The law also established numerous consumer protection measures, such as keeping player funds segregated from operational funds and requiring operators to provide voluntary self-exclusion programs for customers.

However, the story did not end there. Anti-gambling groups sued Governor Andrew Cuomo shortly after the passage of the fantasy sports law. In 2020, an appeals court ruled against the daily fantasy industry by declaring the 2016 law unconstitutional.

Daily fantasy players finally received a firm ruling on the matter in March 2022 when the State of New York Court of Appeals ruled 4-3 that DFS games are contests of skill and do not violate state gambling laws. The decision from the highest court in New York ended the matter once and for all.

New York Daily Fantasy Sports FAQ

Yes. New York passed legislation in 2016 to legalize and regulate fantasy sports. Fantasy sports operators must register with the New York State Gaming Commission and adhere to consumer protection regulations.

New York law requires customers to be 18 or older to participate in fantasy sports contests.

All of the nation’s name-brand fantasy sports companies and numerous small DFS operators are active in New York. Readers can see a list of DFS sites available in New York near the top of this page.

Yes. New York treats fantasy sports winnings as taxable income. As always, BettingUSA recommends that readers contact a licensed professional for questions about their DFS tax obligations.