NFL facing litigation by expo company
News on 22 Jul 2015
News on 22 Jul 2015
The National Football League is facing a million dollar civil claim from The Fan Expo LLC conference organiser, which has accused it of scuppering the three-day National Fantasy Football Convention scheduled for the Sands Expo Centre in Las Vegas through a “reminder” to the NFL Players Association of its policy of not associating the NFL brand with gambling.
The convention program, with appearances of NFL stars, had to be abandoned only a month from launch following the advisory, which reminded players about “promotional activities or other appearances at or in connection with events that are held at or sponsored by casinos.”
The plaintiff claims that the NFL had originally been “expressly supportive” of the event but at some stage had changed its mind and waited until the last minute to issue its warning, allegedly in order to inflict as much damage on the convention as possible.
The court filings by The Fan Expo make some serious accusations that:
* NFL fantasy analyst Michael Fabiano had been given permission to attend the convention;
* Dylan Miller, a producer with the NFL Fantasy Live program had communicated to the National Fantasy Football Convention the NFL’s desire to be well-represented at the convention through its personnel appearing on panels;
* The National Fantasy Football Convention invested considerable sums of money on promoting the convention, safe in the knowledge that it had full NFL support;
* The NFL subsequently underwent a volte face and started placing “intimidating phone calls” in which it warned players and agents that there would be consequences if they appeared at the convention;
* The NFL is accused of hypocrisy, given its support for similar events, its approval of NFL team partnerships with daily fantasy sports companies on grounds that DFS is “skill-based” and its own use of players to promote its interests;
* The filing makes allegations that the NFL is prepared to violate its own policies regarding gambling and proximity to casinos when it stands to benefit financially, and gives examples;
