FanDuel and DraftKings have indefinitely suspended their college football and basketball contests in every state, according to ESPN. College contests will be offered through Monday's men's basketball national championship game.
The decision by both companies is voluntary, but also in accordance with the NCAA, which has long opposed gambling on games involving its student-athletes, legal or illegal. It considers daily fantasy a form of sports betting, but the companies argue their contests are games of skill. The two companies have had ongoing conversations with the NCAA over the last several months.
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A DraftKings spokesperson said in a statement to ESPN that suspending college contests is the "best path forward for the industry at this time." This decision, of course, comes at a time in which the DFS industry is fighting legal battles on all fronts. More than half the country's states have introduced daily fantasy sports legislation this year. DraftKings and FanDuel stopped offering contests in New York after the state's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, deemed the games illegal.
In October, the NCAA barred DFS sites from advertising during its championship events, but individual conferences still accepted them for broadcasts on their networks.
According to ESPN, college contests make up just three percent of total revenue for DFS sites. So while DraftKings and FanDuel likely aren't thrilled to give up these games, it appears to be logical while they try to make sure their contests, as a whole, remain legal.
One belief is that suspending college games will help DFS sites avoid any tie to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which in 1992 essentially banned sports betting in the United States and has been used by the leagues as a defense in New Jersey's fight to legalize sports betting.