NCAA less than happy with daily fantasy sports activity

With March Madness grabbing the gambling headlines in the United States, and daily fantasy sports operators offering big money on the right brackets, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has reiterated that it does not endorse gambling on collegiate athletics, and is actively trying to ban daily fantasy gambling on college sports.

The Boston Globe newspaper reported this week that FanDuel and DraftKings are offering players the chance to win almost a million dollars in prize money as the March Madness annual fever rises, but that the NCAA has clarified that it opposes DFS penetration into collegiate sports.

NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy told the Globe: “We have made clear at every point in this national debate that daily fantasy sports competition should not be allowed to be conducted using college, high school, and youth sports programs.”

Our readers will ecall that last year the Association corresponded with the DFS market leaders asking them to stop offering cash-prize games betting on the outcome of college sports because they might violate federal laws on gambling.

Christian Genetski, FanDuel’s legal chief, rejected the NCAA’s request, claiming that the Association has “no legal basis” to ask FanDuel to stop running contests based on college sports.

However since then the DFS industry has come under heavy scrutiny across most US states amid a fierce debate on whether DFS constitutes gambling, and /or whether it should be legalised and regulated….or banned.

The NCAA is not sitting on its hands whilst this debate rages; it has announced that it will block advertising from fantasy companies during the March Madness tournament and will not allow officials working at the games to participate in paid fantasy contests. Athletes who play paid fantasy sports could also lose their eligibility, it has warned.

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