Fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel fight back against New York attorney general
Fantasy sports fans demonstrate outside the Financial District offices of New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in New York on Friday.
Don’t mess with daily fantasy sports.
A group of protesters had that message for New York Atty Gen. Eric Schneiderman when they gathered outside his Lower Manhattan offices Friday morning to speak out against his attempt to stop DraftKings and FanDuel from doing business with New Yorkers.
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On Tuesday Schneiderman’s office sent cease-and-desist letters to the two top online daily fantasy sports companies, saying their sites violated state gambling laws by offering games of chance, rather than skill.
Which is why there were people outside his workplace carrying signs like this:
And yelling things like this:
It wasn’t exactly a mass protest. Reports are estimating the crowd size to have been anywhere from “dozens” to about 300. And reportedly a large percentage of that group is made up of either members of the media or employees of DraftKings or FanDuel.
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Still, it probably wasn’t the type of scene Scheiderman wanted to see when he got to work on Friday morning.
And the pushback isn’t going to go away. Soon after the protest, FanDuel and DraftKings filed lawsuits against Schneiderman to block his attempts to shut them down in New York.
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