The SEC Network will no longer air commercials for DraftKings and FanDuel, with the league’s commissioner declaring the daily fantasy sports games to represent “a form of gambling”.
The news was first reported by WVTM-TV, an NBC affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama.
“Is it a form of gambling, is it a form of skill game, and I think there is some question about that,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told WVTM. “And I think the appropriate place for us to land as a conference on the SEC Network, again working with ESPN, is not to include that advertising on the SEC Network moving forward.”
Daily fantasy sites have long existed outside US laws prohibiting sports gambling because they have been classified as games of skill rather than chance. Jason Robins, DraftKings’s co-founder and CEO, has consistently likened it to picking stocks.
Yet with NCAA athletes facing loss of eligibility for participating in daily fantasy games, Sankey said the league should no longer profit from them.
“Given there’s an NCAA bylaw related to sports wagering that picks up a lot including fantasy sports, we felt not including that was appropriate position for the league.”
Commercials for DraftKings and FanDuel have been ubiquitous across America as the billion-dollar startups jockey for market share. They spent a combined $27m for roughly 8,000 television spots during the first week of the NFL season, with Fortune reporting a combined $100m spent during the six-week span from 1 August to 15 September.
Last week, Rep Frank Pallone Jr (D-NJ) asked Congress to investigate whether the sites are flouting restrictions on online gambling.
