‘We’re not legal’ ploy by daily fantasy sports firm fails

Earlier this year we reported on the $1.1 million contract dispute between Las Vegas daily fantasy sports company Emil Interactive Games LLC (t/a DraftOps) and the Minnesota Wild hockey team, in which Emil Interactive was sued on allegations of being in breach of its 2015 contract to provide $1.1 million in sponsorship for the hockey team.

The case attracted attention due to the growing profile of DFS and the unusual defence of the DFS company, which claimed that because daily fantasy sports was illegal in Minnesota, the contract was invalid, along with its obligation to pay the sponsorship.

The Minnesota Wild suit claimed $1.1 million in missed payments, plus 1.5 percent interest per month and $50,000 or more in damages, naming as defendants Emil Interactive’s president, Las Vegas businessman Ronald Doumani, and EI’s management company Full Boat LLC.

This week the matter was heard in a federal court before US District Judge Wilhelmina Wright, who rejected Emil’s Interactive’s argument regarding its breach of contract but avoided direct comment on the issue of DFS illegality in Minnesota, opining that this was not relevant to the central contract issue.

Judge Wright ruled that the issue between the hockey team and the company pertained to sponsorship and advertising, not gambling.

“In short … a sponsorship agreement – not online (daily fantasy sports) – is at issue here,” she said.

However, any celebration by the hockey team would have been short-lived, because Judge Wright went on to say that the hockey team had not provided sufficient evidence that Doumani and Full Boat LLC were responsible for the debt and dismissed the complaint against them.

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