FSM Blog

The NFLPA recently lost in Supreme Court to CBS Interactive and the ruling bodes well for the 25+ million of us that play fantasy sports. You can download and view the actual Memo and Ruling in PDF form and read all about it.

In a nutshell, what this means is that companies such as CBS Interactive can continue to run their fantasy games with player names and statistics without having to pay an (outrageous) licensing fee to the NFLPA.

“This victory further cements the autonomy of fantasy sports operators from sports leagues and player unions,” said newly elected Fantasy Sports Trade Association President Paul Charchian. “The ruling ensures that the industry’s hundreds of fantasy companies will continue creating wide ranging products to serve the needs of fantasy players.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Major League Baseball lost a similar battle almost a year ago so it’s not surprising that this ruling was decided the way it was. The case history is there so precedence has been set. However, it shouldn’t be to anyone’s surprise that the NFLPA tried to sue as in big business it’s still a “copycat” league. The NHL would sue if they had the money but they don’t have money to waste on useless litigation like MLB and the NFL do. The NBA is smarter than the average pro sports league and they know how powerful fantasy sports can be in growing the brand. They’re not going to mess with that.

I never understood how one could contend that the players’ statistics are “property” of the players union. It doesn’t make any sense. The statistics in question are derived from the official scorer, which is then recycled to other places by stats providers such as Stats Inc. So if these big fantasy gaming companies (CBS, Yahoo, ESPN, etc) are already paying for these stats in an effort to provide their users with the most up to date scoring available, why would they have to pay a licensing fee to the league on top of it?

Ultimately, pro sports leagues never realized the legitimacy of fantasy sports when they first began. Consequently they never took measures to make sure that they would profit directly once fantasy sports became mainstream. Now they’re forced to scramble and file unmerited lawsuits against the fans which make their sport thrive.

It’s laughable, and I’m glad the Supreme Court feels the same way.