NY DFS Generates $18.6M in Revenues Since Regulation

The numbers are now in from New York’s nascent daily fantasy sports (DFS) industry, with the market having generated $18.6 million in gross revenue during its first five months of regulation, resulting in $3 million in tax revenues for the state. All the money was subsequently channeled towards the New York Lottery fund to help support various education programs.
Naturally, most of New York’s DFS revenues were generated by the states two biggest operators, DraftKings and FanDuel, although contributions were also made by the other handful of companies also with official licenses, including Yahoo, Fantasy Draft, Draft, DraftDay, Synkt Games, Fanamana and DataForce. In the meantime, another DFS operator, Fantasy Aces, went bankrupt last month, in the process leaving its customers high and dry after failing to segregate their money from the company’s operating funds.
The struggle to have DFS legalized in New York was a protracted battle, and one involving acrimonious accusations from the main concerned parties, namely AG Eric Schneiderman representing New York state, and DFS operators DraftKings and FanDuel. The timeline of the industry’s drive towards regulation has now even inspired a new book written by Daniel Barbarisi called “Dueling With Kings”, and as the Wall Street Journal sports reporter explained recently:
“I started wondering: How did a bunch of bros manage to legalize sports gambling, and nobody noticed? That’s how I saw it, and I thought it was amazing.”
While New York’s DFS industry is almost half a year old, online poker is still struggling to gain any traction in The Empire State. Hopes exits, however, that 2017 may finally be the year in which New York joins the country’s three other states offering legalized internet poker, namely Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey. New York Assemblyman Gary Pretlow seems to have now had his worries allayed concerning the industry’s potential for cheating and geolocation problems, and has already introduced his Bill A5250 to the legislature. As he explained recently:
“When I do sign off on something, my colleagues feel that it is a good deal, and they don’t question why I made a certain decision. They know that if that decision was made, it was for good reasons.”