4 ms·

It's because bookmaking is a game of chance while fantasy sports (daily or not) is considered a game of skill. Ironically bookmaking is much more fair for the a

by jonknee 11y ago

It's because bookmaking is a game of chance while fantasy sports (daily or not) is considered a game of skill. Ironically bookmaking is much more fair for the average person than daily fantasy, but that's not how the government sees it.

kasey_junk 11y ago
Thats what they used to justify the difference in the law, but any other form of sports gambling seems to meet the same standard. For that matter, the daily sites have devolved into a sort of prop bet parlay. My own personal subjective opinion is that blackjack, craps and especially poker all have higher skill to luck ratios than the daily fantasy games. Especially with the rake set the way it currently is.
- sokoloff 11y ago
  Fully agree with you on poker. Mild agreement on blackjack. Complete disagreement on craps. Could you describe the "skill-based winning strategy" for craps? (Other than "don't play")
  - kasey_junk 11y ago
    Craps has negative ev but it is pretty small playing the no-pass line. My hypothesis is that the rake is so high on daily fantasy that any "skill based" positive ev is more than swamped by the cost of playing. So the daily fantasy sites are essentially lotteries where you need very abnormal winnings to make up for the rake.
ssharp 11y ago
There are still people who can statistically make money betting sports, so I'd be hard-pressed to call that any less of a game of skill than daily fantasy sports or poker. For a long time, professional sports leagues in the US were extremely anti-gambling because they didn't want to be associated with it and they were worried about integrity. However, the NFL got in bed early-on with fantasy sports, so they didn't fight things when it became clear that daily fantasy sports were becoming more popular, despite clearly being gambling. Now, the NBA has come out in support of bookmaking. They were an interesting league to do that since one of their refs was caught tampering with games a few years ago. However, analytics in the NBA have become extremely sophisticated (they have tech that tracks every step each player makes), and looking back at the data, they could have caught that ref much earlier based on data. So I'm assuming they are confident enough in the analysis to thwart any tampering and are now trying to get into bed with the sports books in efforts to increase their revenue.

by jonknee 11y ago

kasey_junk 11y ago

Thats what they used to justify the difference in the law, but any other form of sports gambling seems to meet the same standard. For that matter, the daily sites have devolved into a sort of prop bet parlay. My own personal subjective opinion is that blackjack, craps and especially poker all have higher skill to luck ratios than the daily fantasy games. Especially with the rake set the way it currently is.

sokoloff 11y ago
Fully agree with you on poker. Mild agreement on blackjack. Complete disagreement on craps. Could you describe the "skill-based winning strategy" for craps? (Other than "don't play")
- kasey_junk 11y ago
  Craps has negative ev but it is pretty small playing the no-pass line. My hypothesis is that the rake is so high on daily fantasy that any "skill based" positive ev is more than swamped by the cost of playing. So the daily fantasy sites are essentially lotteries where you need very abnormal winnings to make up for the rake.

ssharp 11y ago

There are still people who can statistically make money betting sports, so I'd be hard-pressed to call that any less of a game of skill than daily fantasy sports or poker. For a long time, professional sports leagues in the US were extremely anti-gambling because they didn't want to be associated with it and they were worried about integrity. However, the NFL got in bed early-on with fantasy sports, so they didn't fight things when it became clear that daily fantasy sports were becoming more popular, despite clearly being gambling. Now, the NBA has come out in support of bookmaking. They were an interesting league to do that since one of their refs was caught tampering with games a few years ago. However, analytics in the NBA have become extremely sophisticated (they have tech that tracks every step each player makes), and looking back at the data, they could have caught that ref much earlier based on data. So I'm assuming they are confident enough in the analysis to thwart any tampering and are now trying to get into bed with the sports books in efforts to increase their revenue.