As some of the DFS world’s biggest companies come under fire in legal news and debates around pick’em contests, Underdog Fantasy is now under further review in Maine following some interesting happenings.
The Maine Gambling Control Unit instructed Underdog Fantasy to stop offering pick’em contests in the state; in which the latter already complied. Due to the MGCU finding of $1.4 million in profit being made by the promotion in the state in pick’em contests, as well as looking to set the tone with regulation, the appeal process is not expected to change the state’s current stance on the pick’em provider.
Milton Champion, who is the Executive Director of the MGCU, offered the following from his written decision to ban the pick’em provider from the state:
“provide that a winning outcome may not be based on the score, point spread or performance of a single actual sports team … or solely on a single performance of an individual athlete.”
Champion also told Legal Sports Report that the nearly $400,00 fine leveled against Underdog Fantasy is meant to set the tone.
“This is the first of its kind and is setting a precedent,” Champion told LSR. “It sets the tone going forward, but any other violations will be looked at separately.”
As for the the company facing these issues, they’ve reportedly complied with all requests by the state and do have 30 days to appeal the ruling.
On their end, Underdog Fantasy released the following statement:
“This is just an initial step in the administrative process, and we now have the opportunity to be heard by the state in the coming weeks and look forward to receiving a final decision that ultimately agrees with our interpretation of Maine law,” an Underdog spokesperson said Tuesday.
At the time of this writing, the amount of Underdog Fantasy legal states is a bit smaller than it was just a few short hours ago, but as more and more legislators look at regulating both DFS and traditional gambling, continued fallout nation-wide is expected. As for Maine, there’s no firm date for traditional gambling to go live in the state, although Champion does expect to go live by November and even acknowledged there will likely be some bumps in the road as things get going.
