00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 - What exactly is going on in Wyoming here,
00:06 if we could here?
00:07 It looks like underdog and prize picks
00:10 have blurred the lines between what is fantasy
00:13 and what is an actual sports bet here.
00:16 What's happening with this?
00:18 - Yeah, so there's a lot going on in the DFS world right now
00:22 in part of the sports betting ecosystem.
00:27 Last month at a conference that me and a couple of colleagues
00:30 went to legislative sports betting conference,
00:35 a fan dual government affairs executive said,
00:39 you know, we've got sports books out here
00:40 that are masquerading as, or DFS operators
00:45 that are masquerading as sports book operators.
00:48 And that's because they're offering over under prop bets
00:51 that you kind of parlay together
00:52 and you're playing against the house.
00:54 They feel that it does fall under the fantasy sports
00:58 carve out in the US law.
01:00 Now, this is a very tight line to walk.
01:05 And some regulators have found that it is sports betting.
01:10 And that's the latest in Wyoming.
01:12 They sent a season to CIS letter last month
01:14 to underdog and prize picks.
01:16 We've had a couple other States,
01:17 including Maryland and West Virginia do something similar.
01:21 And it just says, you know what?
01:23 You're too close to sports betting.
01:25 We don't want you operating without buying a sports book
01:28 license or paying for a sports book license.
01:31 And what's interesting here is we've talked to my colleague
01:35 Sam McQuillan and I have talked to both underdog
01:39 and price picks and they're like, we didn't get the letters.
01:42 And Sam talked to Charlie Moore,
01:44 the head regulator in Wyoming.
01:46 He said, well, we sent the letters,
01:47 they're real letters.
01:48 So the Wyoming situation is interesting.
01:52 But from the mouths of the DFS operators,
01:56 they are willing to work with the regulators,
01:59 make sure they're on the up and up
02:01 and are following the laws.
02:03 They do accept that there's differing views
02:06 of how it comes out,
02:07 but they're operating where the regulators
02:09 are saying they can,
02:10 and they're not where the regulators are saying they cannot.
02:13 So really interesting situation.
02:15 Yeah, something certainly to keep an eye on.
02:18 (upbeat music)
02:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]
