EDITOR & PUBLISHER: The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Web site, Philly.com, has become the first newspaper to offer online sports betting in the United States. In a partnership with FanDuel, a British online betting company, visitors to Philly.com Instant Fantasy Gamescan play and win in one-day online fantasy sports games that pay off in real money. Bettors pick a team from players in scheduled Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association or National Hockey League games that day. If their team wins the fantasy contest, Philly.com says, there are “instant cash prizes — win tonight!” Users pay a $5 entry fee for each game and can win as much as $90 a game. Online gambling is illegal in the United States, but there is an exception for fantasy sports. MORE
TECH CRUNCH: FanDuel, which focuses solely on US sports, offers a slightly different take on the traditional fantasy sports game model. Instead of games lasting the whole season, players play and win in as little as a day – think of it as “one-night stand” fantasy sports, says the company. What’s more, there’s real money involved, so in that sense this isn’t far off from online betting, something that might normally fall foul of US law. Not so in the case of FanDuel, which is exempt thanks to the fantasy sports carve out in the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act; as stated, the only difference is that FanDuel-powered fantasy sports games only last a day (for baseball) or a week (for football). MORE