The Nevada Gaming Board deemed that Daily Fantasy Sports is gambling according to Nevada law. As a result, Daily Fantasy Operators including UFC sponsor DraftKings are pulling out of the state.
According to the decision on Thursday, a daily fantasy operator must obtain a gambling license in the state of Nevada if it is to continue to operate in the state. None of the sites have a license and all have or will pull out of the state. The decision is just one of the many recent happenings in the unregulated world of daily fantasy sports.
While it’s not immediately known, the departure from Nevada probably has no impact with its UFC sponsorship. There are still many states where daily fantasy sports is legal. We probably will not know if it will still maintain a presence in the Octagon until the next UFC event in Nevada which would be UFC Fight Night 80 on December 10th.
Prior to UFC 182, Draft Kings announced a deal with Jon Jones prior to his title defense against Daniel Cormier. It announced a sponsorship deal with the UFC in late February of this year. The UFC is just one of the multitude of sports sponsors that Draft Kings and other daily fantasy operators have brokered since coming onto the scene.
Nevada rules on DFS by JASONCRUZ206
Payout Perspective:
While the Nevada ruling is a big blow, sponsorship of sporting events, programming, teams and leagues remain intact for the most part. An interesting question to ask is whether the loss of markets (i.e., states where consumers can play legally) will mean the loss of national sponsorships. If there is a nationwide overhaul of this particular industry, we could see the end of the sponsor deal with the UFC. Certainly the UFC-Draft Kings sponsorship deal must have an ending point with the opportunity to renew. We shall see what happens next in this industry. The loss of a sponsor might have some impact to the UFC despite it having a very good financial year.
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