DraftKings, FanDuel make 11th-hour Illinois sports betting pitch

Daily fantasy sports cum sports betting operators DraftKings and FanDuel are signaling that they won’t be excluded from any legal Illinois betting market without a fight.

Thursday saw the release of a new video by Bet On Illinois (BOI), a lobby group consisting of DraftKings and the FanDuel Group (an offshoot of UK-listed gaming giant Paddy Power Betfair). BOI’s mission statement is to “bring mobile sports betting to Illinois,” particularly if that mobile betting is offered by DraftKings or FanDuel.

Illinois has been struggling to pass legislation that would legalize betting in their state, but that effort was compromised a couple weeks back when state Rep. Michael Zalewski tacked on some ‘bad actor’ amendments that would require DFS operators to serve a three-year ‘time out’ before acquiring betting licenses.

The ‘bad actor’ amendment is based on the Illinois Attorney General’s late-2015 opinion that DFS was gambling. By extension, firms such as DK and FD that were offering DFS to Illinois residents at the time were breaking the law and must now atone for their sins.