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SportsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Yeah, I really am interested in this story here
00:05 because, you know, Underdog is a very popular sports app
00:08 for drafts, for fantasy,
00:11 but having some issues here in Illinois,
00:12 what's the latest?
00:13 - Yeah, Underdog's an app we've talked about a lot.
00:17 You know, one of those couple that kind of toes the line
00:20 between daily fantasy sports and sports betting,
00:23 offering their Pick'Em product
00:25 where you can essentially create what's kind of a parlay
00:28 of overs and unders on different athletes.
00:31 That's alive in a lot of states
00:33 and that's sort of been an issue
00:34 that regulators have kind of taken a look at
00:37 whether or not that is sports betting,
00:38 whether it's daily fantasy.
00:40 There's a good argument kind of on both sides,
00:42 but they've had to deal with a lot of kind of scrutiny
00:45 against them lately.
00:46 You know, one of those examples being this lawsuit
00:49 in Illinois where this Illinois lawyer
00:53 is essentially suing them,
00:54 saying that they are unlicensed sports betting
00:57 and therefore he's actually entitled
00:59 to some of the proceeds from it
01:01 under kind of a weird old Illinois law
01:04 that says essentially if someone loses from illegal gambling
01:07 if they don't sue within six months,
01:09 then anybody can and anybody can kind of recoup the money.
01:13 What's interesting is this guy's kind of done
01:15 about a dozen of these lawsuits,
01:16 at least that I'm aware of,
01:18 and hasn't just targeted Underdog,
01:20 he's DraftKings, FanDuel, other fantasy companies as well,
01:24 sort of trying to allege that any kind of, you know,
01:27 any kind of type of fantasy sports
01:29 or daily fantasy sports rather is illegal gambling,
01:32 thus he's entitled to the proceeds.
01:33 But what's going on in Illinois is basically
01:36 the judges are hearing arguments in a few cases,
01:39 and there was a hearing this past week
01:41 where the judge came back and said,
01:43 "Hey, you guys need to present
01:44 sort of a more of a succinct argument
01:46 as to how this is in fact sports betting
01:49 and not fantasy sports."
01:52 Illinois, you know, is one of those states
01:53 that looks at whether or not it's predominantly skill-based
01:56 or predominantly chance-based.
01:57 So the guy who's suing in this case, Mark Lavery,
02:00 is arguing that the contest that Underdog offers
02:04 in Illinois and every other state
02:05 rely mostly on chance versus skill.
02:09 So interesting that we have a judge coming back
02:11 and saying that, "Hey, you know,
02:13 you guys need to give actual examples and reasons,
02:15 and the onus is on you to prove that, not Underdog."
02:18 So this is sort of one of the instances where Underdog is,
02:21 you know, they're kind of confident
02:22 that the case is gonna go their way
02:25 and they'll be dismissed relatively soon.
02:27 The plaintiff does have until the end of the month
02:30 to come back with a better argument,
02:32 or else it'll probably be dismissed.
02:33 And there's several other pending cases.
02:35 I imagine this would impact as well in Illinois.
02:39 (upbeat music)
02:41 (upbeat music)