Fantasy sports sites ask N.Y. court to allow operations amid appeal
NEW YORK -- Fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel asked a state court on Monday to allow them to continue operating in New York as they appeal a lower court judge's order to stop.
In court papers filed in the State Supreme Court Appellate Division in Manhattan, the companies argued their businesses would suffer greatly if they were forced to prevent customers from playing fantasy before the case worked its way through the appeals process.
A lower court judge barred the companies from operating last month, siding with the state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman who has likened their businesses to illegal gambling operations. But after the companies appealed, an appellate judge stayed that order until the full panel of appellate judges could consider it.
Fantasy sports "have been offered openly, honestly, and permissibly in New York for nearly a decade; and if the NYAG had actual evidence that they caused public harm, he would have identified it in his brief," DraftKings attorney Randy Mastro wrote in a filing. "There is none."
"The Attorney General has still offered no evidence that supports a preliminary injunction," said David Boies, counsel to DraftKings and Chairman at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP in a statement. "Daily fantasy sports contests are not gambling -- their outcome is controlled by the knowledge and skill of DFS players --that's how you win or lose."
The full panel could rule on whether the companies can operate amid the appeals process in as few as two weeks, during the middle of the NFL football playoffs.
The companies argue their games are based on skill, not chance, and players pay entry fees in order to manage rosters like a general manager.
"The only difference between a daily and a season-long fantasy contest is how long it lasts and the Attorney General has said that season-long fantasy sports contests are lawful," said Boies.
But Schneiderman has countered that the games are highly dependent on factors out of their control -- such as injuries or even the weather -- and are thus ultimately based on chance
"Like a sports bettor, a DFS player makes a wager that pays out depending on the performance of athletes on the field -- events over which DFS players, like sports bettors, have no influence or control," an assistant attorney general wrote in a memo to the appellate court submitted last week.