{"id":44421,"date":"2017-01-30T15:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T23:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=44421"},"modified":"2017-01-30T15:13:21","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T23:13:21","slug":"draftkings-fanduel-merger-threatened-antitrust-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-fanduel-merger-threatened-antitrust-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Is DraftKings-FanDuel Merger Threatened by Antitrust Laws?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p2\">DraftKings\u2019 and FanDuel\u2019s announcement in November that they would merge to form a true DFS behemoth put an end to months of will-they-won\u2019t-they speculation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">But why has it all gone silent since? Why the hold up?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_44423\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44423\" data-style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-44423\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/edelman.jpg\" alt=\"Professor Marc Edleman has antitrust issues about DraftKings-FanDuel Merger\" width=\"640\" height=\"457\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/edelman.jpg 604w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/edelman-142x101.jpg 142w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-44423\"class=\"text-description\">Marc Edleman, professor of law at the City University of New York believes that antitrust laws are a big impediment to the FanDuel DraftKings merger and could even derail the whole process. (Image: exavierpoker.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-fanduel-merger-described-imminent\">FanDuel<\/a> was initially reluctant to embrace a merger; in 2015, its CEO Nigel Eccles dismissed the idea out of hand, citing, in his view, some questionable business decisions of his competitor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">But after a year in which each company was forced to shell out millions fighting their various legal and political battles, pressure from private <span class=\"s1\">investors in both companies began to make a combination inevitable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\">Here were two companies spending millions attempting to out-market each other, while also separately fighting expensive battles on several fronts across the US, hiring lawyers and lobbyists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\">These were costs that could be shared by a consolidated group. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p5\"><b>Anti-trust Issues <\/b><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p5\">Writing in Forbes last week, Marc Edelman, a professor of law at the City University of New York, believes that the hold up comes down to an antitrust issue and that there is at least some chance that the merger will not be allowed to go ahead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Antitrust laws are designed to regulate corporations to protect fair competition for the benefit of consumers. That means preventing the creation of monopolies or companies that are too dominant within one market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">A combined DrafKings and FanDuel, with around a 95 percent dominance of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-fanduel-relaunch-new-york\">DFS market<\/a>, falls dead center into the latter category.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p class=\"p2\"><strong>\u201cState-by-state regulations and licensing fees make it very expensive for new companies to enter the marketplace, at least in certain states,\u201d writes Edelman, who also happens to be a former attorney specializing in antitrust law. \u201cMeanwhile, FanDuel and DraftKings have a nearly complete bottleneck on potential partnerships with sports leagues and teams. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cIndeed, a combined entity would include equity interests from Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, and at least two National Football League teams.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p2\"><b>Hanging in the Balance<\/b><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p2\">There has been a precedent in the gambling industry, at least in the UK, where, in 1998, a proposed merger between bookmaking giants Ladbrokes and Coral was blocked by regulators on the grounds it would have \u201ca dampening effect on innovation and a reduction in consumer choice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Last year, in an era of increased competition where online sports betting has flooded the market with new brands, the two companies tried again and were approved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">But unlike the UK sports betting sector,\u00a0Daily Fantasy Sports is hardly a crowded market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cWhile it would be folly to conclude\u00a0with certainty that a DraftKings-FanDuel merger will not ultimately close,\u201d concludes<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Edleman, \u201cFanDuel and DraftKings\u2019s seven weeks of silence since announcing their proposed merger on November 18 helps to corroborate [that] \u2026\u00a0a merger of DraftKings and FanDuel is far from a sure thing under federal antitrust law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DraftKings\u2019 and FanDuel\u2019s announcement in November that they would merge to form a true DFS behemoth put an end to months of will-they-won\u2019t-they speculation. But why has it all gone silent since? Why the hold up? FanDuel was initially reluctant to embrace a merger; in 2015, its CEO Nigel Eccles dismissed the idea out of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":44423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is DraftKings-FanDuel Merger Threatened by Antitrust Laws?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"DraftKings and FanDuel agreed to merge in November, but the ensuing silence suggests antitrust regulators have issues with the proposal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is DraftKings-FanDuel Merger Threatened by Antitrust Laws?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"DraftKings and FanDuel agreed to merge in November, but the ensuing silence suggests antitrust regulators have issues with the proposal.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-fanduel-merger-threatened-antitrust-laws\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-30T23:00:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-30T23:13:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/edelman.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"604\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"431\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-fanduel-merger-threatened-antitrust-laws\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-fanduel-merger-threatened-antitrust-laws\/\",\"name\":\"Is DraftKings-FanDuel Merger Threatened by Antitrust Laws?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-fanduel-merger-threatened-antitrust-laws\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-fanduel-merger-threatened-antitrust-laws\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/edelman.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-30T23:00:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-30T23:13:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"DraftKings and FanDuel agreed to merge in November, but the ensuing silence suggests antitrust regulators have issues with the proposal.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-fanduel-merger-threatened-antitrust-laws\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-fanduel-merger-threatened-antitrust-laws\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-fanduel-merger-threatened-antitrust-laws\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/edelman.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/edelman.jpg\",\"width\":604,\"height\":431,\"caption\":\"Marc Edleman, professor of law at the City University of New York believes that antitrust laws are a big impediment to the FanDuel DraftKings merger and could even derail the whole process. 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