New York ban on DFS

[Cocktails and Dreams]

Dave summed it up perfectly on the football guys board. DFS is trying to argue that it is more of game of skill than season long based on bulk numbers. Well guess what. They are trying to legalize being able to play a game. One game. Not huge sample sizes of games. And one full season contest has an alarming amount more skill involved than one daily contest. It is asinine to argue otherwise.

[JETS SB]

My point was there was no representation for season long in New York yesterday. DFS is definitely not fighting for us. They are taking us down with them. And the AG is clueless as far as season long. DFS even has the judge lumping us in with them, but in a bad way. And here we are, hoping that one man sides with the real enemy, DFS. That's fact. Deny it all we want, DFS caused this. Whether we agree with the approach of the AG or not, it was DFS who aired billions of dollars of commercials claiming anyone can win a million dollars. What did we expect to happen? And then taking the route of "DFS is skill and season long is luck" approach, to try and save their billion dollar day trading ass.

Greg, I didn't imply you weren't doing anything. I know you are. I think we are in the passenger seat of a hit and run and all we can do is try and maintain our position. My hope is, we distinguish a separation from DFS.

Alan, I hate to keep going on about this, but of course there was no representation for season-long at the trial. We aren't on trial. This is DFS vs. the New York Attorney General and the DFS lawyers took the opening that the AG left them. He said season-long is a legal game of skill and that DFS is an illegal game of luck. Naturally the DFS lawyers would attack that opening.

We can't represent at that trial because we're not involved in the fight. If Schneiderman wins this injunction and decides to extend this fight to season-long pay games, then we'll be ready as an industry. But he has made no indication that he wants that fight. That being said, his representative compared fantasy sports to prop betting and didn't seem to know that some season-long games actually play for cash prizes. They don't understand all that goes into winning at fantasy sports, that's for sure. Hopefully the judge saw that.

Again, we aren't against the DFS model. It seems like a good, legal game of skill. The way the two big companies have marketed this game is sickening to some and we understand that. The way they are dragging season-long into this battle is sickening to some. We understand that. But this fight is out of our control and we sure hope DFS survives this fight and becomes a better part of our industry going forward. I'm not against the game concept, just some of the practices we've seen to date.