Another Twist in the Fantasy Lawsuit

Just over a month ago, the daily fantasy sports (DFS) lawsuit against FanDuel and DraftKings had begun and tensions between the company and its customers (fantasy sports players) were high after accusations of insider trading had surfaced. As of last week, a new twist that not even James Cameron or Steven Spielberg could have thought of has now been thrown into the mix. Two DFS employees have filed a lawsuit against over 50 companies that had invested into DFS companies or facilitated DFS gaming.  The logic behind the lawsuit is that these companies were investing and facilitating "illegal gambling" operations.  Per Sports Illustrated, the companies that are being sued include, but are not limited to:

• The National Basketball Association (NBA) , Major League Baseball Ventures (MLB), National Hockey League Ventures(NHL), and Major League Soccer (MLS)
• The Kraft Group (owned by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft), Legends Hospitality (co-owned by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the New York Yankees), and MSG Sports and Entertainment (owned by New York Knicks owner James Dolan)
• Turner Sports, Time Warner, NBC Sports Comcast Ventures, 21^st Century Fox and Fox Sports Interactive Media
• Visa, MasterCard and American Express
• J.P. Morgan, Capital One Bank, Google Capital, Piton Capital and Scottish Investment Bank
• PayPal, Paysafe and Vantiv (payment processors)
• DraftKings, FanDuel and Jason Robins

Theses companies are some of the largest and most successful organizations in the world, so this should be interesting to see where this lawsuit goes. The legal claims behind the lawsuit include theories of negligence, breach of contract, and the felonious crime of racketeering.  If it is approved as a class-action lawsuit, it is expected that thousands, if not more, will join for reimbursements.  It will be interesting to see the defense of these companies against such charges. There will be more posts on this lawsuit as the case develops.

The Other Lawsuit..

Since most of my blogs have been about fantasy sports lawsuits, specifically football, I believe it is time to shed light on another lawsuit that involves football.  The Concussion lawsuit.  There has been a couple different lawsuits suing the NFL, the CFL, NCAA and certain helmet brands such as Riddell and Schutt.  This lawsuit has been brought to the public after research suggested that football players whom have suffered head injuries or concussions can lead to permanent brain damage and early onset of dementia. Some of these side effects include, but are not limited to change in personality, depression,  ringing in ears, chronic headaches, memory loss and suicidal thoughts/tendencies.  This has been studied from the professional level all the way down to high school. 
If this is your first time hearing this and you are interested in learning more about the NFL and concussions, there will be a movie featuring Will Smith and Alec Baldwin called "Concussion". In the film, Smith plays Dr. Bennett Omalu,  a Nigerian-born forensic pathologist in Pittsburgh who knows nothing about football when he performs the autopsy on a former NFL player. He soons learns how brain injury can be caused by playing football and the long-term effects that it has on the players.  It also shows the controversy that this started when the findings were revealed to the Roger Goodell and the NFL.  The movie is based on true events and uses real names of actual players who were used for research. The film hits theaters December 25, 2015.

NFL Player sues FanDuel

With a major lawsuit alleging daily fantasy sports providers DraftKings and FanDuel of insider trading about to go on trial, you can imagine the lawyers are ready for a tough legal battle ahead.  These allegations began when it was found that employees from DraftKings were using nonpublic information about fantasy players and using this to make "money-winning" lineups at their competitor's site FanDuel (due to employees not being allowed to play at their own sites) and vice versa.  This not only gave these fantasy players a competitive edge while making their lineups, but it also may have caused other fantasy players to lose money or win less than they should have.  This has cause a lot of bad publicity for both fantasy sports providers, but their troubles haven't ended there...
Now an article from The Washington Post states that NFL wide receiver Pierre Garcon of the Washington Redskins is suing fantasy football provider FanDuel on behalf of all NFL players.  In his lawsuit, Garcon claims "I am bringing this lawsuit against FanDuel for using my name, image, and likeness in both daily fantasy contests and through advertising on TV ads and infomercials. FanDuel has taken the liberty to engage in these actions without my consent and without proper licensing rights. As a result of these activities, FanDuel daily fantasy contests have shown increasing revenues leading to large profits. Therefore, on behalf of myself as well as any other players who are being treated unjustly, I chose to file a complaint.."
What Garcon is essentially stating in his complaint is that FanDuel is using his image, as well as other NFL players, to promote their website without the consent or any proper licensing or legal papers.  This is a problem because FanDuel are making LOTS of money off NFL player's images and performance like Garcons in their commercials and they aren't getting compensated for it.  Another complaint that Garcon had with FanDuel was that they were "knowingly and improperly exploit[ing] the popularity and performance" of Garcon and other NFL players without their consent.  All this leads to another lawsuit that will have to be settled in court for fantasy provider FanDuel.