DraftKings, FanDuel ordered to shut down current operations in New York state

Eric T. Schneidermann, the New York State Attorney General, ordered Tuesday that DraftKings and FanDuelstop accepting bets in the state, according to the New York Times.

DraftKings alone is said to have 500,000 users in New York, according to the report.

A month ago, Metro spoke with Dr. Scott Jones – a professor of marketing at Stetson University (Florida) and an expert in Internet Commerce and Sports Marketing. Jones predicted that things would first get ugly at the state level for the daily fantasy sports giants.

“I think the big question now is ‘how many state attorney generals will jump on this,” Jones told Metro. “It’s a matter of reversing precedent [for the AGs]. For the daily fantasy companies, they’respending a lot of money on lobbyists right now too.”

The question at this stage of the game, however, is what arethe more powerful entities- state governments or major North American pro sports leagues. FanDuelhas multi-year sponsorship agreements with 15 NFL teams and DraftKings has an exclusive partnership with Major League Baseball. The NBA has an ownership stake in FanDuel and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones are major investors in DraftKings. It’s clear all of these billion dollar leagues want DraftKings and FanDuel to survive and thrive.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last month that there is no need to worry about the integrity of football and other sports being corrupted by the daily fantasy industry.

“It’s hard to see the influence that it could have on the outcome of a game because individual players are picking different players from different teams, mashing them up, you might call it,” Goodellsaid last month. “It’s not based on the outcome of a game, which is what our biggest concern is with sports betting.”