A new industry burst into the mainstream in 2015. At the beginning of 2015, daily fantasy sports was a nascent business taking advantage of gaps in federal regulation to find deep-pocketed backers among major media companies, professional leagues, and their owners. Flush with new investment, the major competitors in this business, FanDuel and DraftKings, blanketed sports media with advertising and discovered an audience aching for an opportunity to spend money. In one weekend in October of 2015 alone, FanDuel and DraftKings collected more than $45 million in entry fees. Daily fantasy sports had become a multi-billion dollar industry.
By the end of 2015, however, the industry seemingly faced every type of legal challenge imaginable. The State of Nevada ruled that daily fantasy sports was unlicensed and, therefore illegal, gambling. In the months that followed, states including Texas, Illinois, and Hawaii made similar rulings.
