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Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones defended his investment in daily fantasy company DraftKings, saying it "creates more interest" for fans. "From my perspective, anything that follows the rules, that causes and creates more interest and more fan participation, I'm really for," Jones said Sunday after the Cowboys' 27-20 loss to the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. "So I'm a supporter and that's the rules that we'll test -- is put your money where your mouth is.
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"I don't think DraftKings or (competitor) FanDuel in any way compromise our players on the football field because it's all fantasy. It has no bearing on the outcome of the game at all."
Jones' investment in DraftKings is permitted by the NFL, but teams themselves are not allowed to hold shares in daily fantasy sports companies, according to ESPN.com. The Kraft Group, which owns the New England Patriots, also invests in DraftKings.
NFL players are allowed to play, but can't accept a prize above $250. NBA and Major League Baseball players are prohibited from even taking part in fantasy games, according to ESPN.
Daily fantasy companies have faced intense scrutiny recently -- including federal and state inquiries into their business practices -- after a DraftKings employee won $350,000 in a FanDuel contest. Both companies soon banned employees from playing on other fantasy sites, but DraftKings announced that an internal investigation and a third-party investigation found that no internal insider information gave that employee an edge.
At least 18 lawsuits, mostly class action against both companies, have been filed and the offices of the New York attorney general and a New York federal prosecutor have started to look into the practices of the companies.
Daily fantasy sports companies need a license to operate in Nevada after a state gaming control board ruling earlier this month. All such unlicensed operations were ordered to stop operations in Nevada. FanDuel and DraftKings agreed to temporarily disable their product for customers in Nevada.
Both sites maintain that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 makes fantasy a game of skill, not chance, and it is therefore not betting.
"Congress made it legal," Patriots team president Jonathan Kraft said on the 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston last week. "It's interesting to me, over the last month or so with all the yelling out of Washington about how this is an unregulated industry -- well, they have the right to regulate it. They chose to make it legal and not pass regulations."
The NCAA is distancing itself from daily fantasy websites, informing DraftKings and FanDuel they are barred from advertising during the men's and women's basketball tournaments.
