Hours before Wednesday night’s MLB games began, sports fanatics could log on to FanDuel Sportsbook and place a two-leg parlay of new Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jack Flaherty to throw more than 5.5 strikeouts and Atlanta Braves pitcher Max Fried to exceed his strikeout prop of 5.5.
A very similar type of market can be found on popular daily fantasy sports operator PrizePicks. So would that parlay be sports betting or fantasy sports? It depends who you ask.
Pick’em-style fantasy games available through popular operators like Underdog Fantasy and PrizePicks have customers choose an over or under for various player statistical categories, and players receive a predetermined payout if the picks hit. Some regulators say those games look too much like sports betting, especially as other DFS games have customers playing against peers, rather than the house.
But DFS operators, including Underdog Fantasy in a letter to its customers, say they are within the bounds of the law and that the country’s two biggest sportsbooks by market share are using strong-arm tactics to keep them down.
States target fantasy sports operators
Ohio and Maryland are among the states that don’t allow pick’em-style contests to be viewed as daily fantasy sports, while regulators in Wyoming and Maine recently started looking into the topic and issuing warnings to DFS operators, according to Legal Sports Report.
Recently proposed fantasy sports regulations in Michigan include language that would jeopardize the ability of some fantasy operators, like PrizePicks, to offer the option above and to do business in the state.
The regulations, which still require approval by the Michigan Legislature before they could take effect, would prohibit fantasy sports operators from offering “proposition selection or fantasy contests that have the effect of mimicking proposition selection.” The proposed rules would prohibit operators from offering “any fantasy contests that involve, result in, or have the effect of mimicking betting on sports.”
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