White-label multi-channel casino and betting solutions provider Viral is to roll out the FantasyBet daily fantasy sports service in the UK market after securing a UK pool betting licence for the brand. Viral will launch FantasyBet in the UK in an effort to take advantage of current growth levels in the UK fantasy sports market. FantasyBet has a number of unique features such as ‘Flash Mode’, which gives players just three minutes to set up and submit a team. “Season-long fantasy football has been popular for many years, but short-term fantasy sports and social gaming products that typically last for…

There are at least 1.3 billion reasons why the operators of DraftKings and FanDuel are beginning to sweat. The two largest daily fantasy sports companies were each valued at $1.3 billion this year by the investment community. Both companies, fueled by hedge funds, investment firms, billionaires, and professional sports leagues, were considering initial public offerings sometime in 2016. That path met a roadblock. The Gaming Control Board issued a “cease and desist” order two weeks ago to the daily fantasy sports sites, saying the activity was the definition of sports wagering under Nevada law. Until they are licensed by the…

Well this is interesting. The friendly folk regulating casinos Nevada say fantasy sports are gambling. At least for now. Anyone who has watched professional football this season has seen the ubiquitous advertising and promotion for pay-to-play daily fantasy sports sites such as DraftKings and FanDuel. On October 15th, 2015, the Nevada Gaming Control Board issued a notice in which they concluded that fantasy sports are gambling under state law. The Board ordered all unlicensed fantasy sports operators to “cease and desist” immediately, and until the requisite gaming approvals are obtained, or until applicable gaming laws are changed by the Nevada…

The NCAA bans DraftKings and daily fantasy sports provider FanDuel from their events. In a letter sent Tuesday, college sports’ largest governing body notified executives from DraftKings and FanDuel it would cancel future meetings and ban advertising from the two popular websites during NCAA championship events such as the men’s basketball tournament. Because the NCAA believes the fantasy games meet the definition of wagering, it has decided to ban all advertising, on site and on television, during championship events – a potentially big hit for two companies that have become major advertisers, particularly on television. The NCAA said its advertising…

On April 15, 2011, thousands of Americans who played online poker woke to find three popular websites shut down by the FBI and millions of dollars in players’ accounts frozen. The online poker industry survived its “Black Friday,” as the day became known, as the Obama administration declared online gaming legal later that year in states that approved it. But the aftermath should serve as a looming worst-case scenario to the millions of Americans who play daily fantasy sports, legal experts say, as many of those players who had money saved in online poker accounts had to wait years before…

Canadian online gambling operator Amaya Gaming has withdrawn its StarsDraft daily fantasy sports operation from all but four US states, citing regulatory developments. On Monday, Amaya issued a statement saying StarsDraft would restrict its real-money DFS contests to US customers located in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Kansas and Maryland, the four states Amaya says have “favorable existing daily fantasy sports guidance.” The move follows StarsDraft’s recent exits from both Florida and Nevada, which were prompted by a federal grand jury investigation and state regulators declaring that DFS operators needed gambling licenses, respectively. Amaya says the exit wouldn’t have a negative financial…