Yeah, this thing is going to be shut down soon. That's insider trading. The next step is for the two companies to artificially create poor values or misleading articles from their paid spokesmen... who also happen to write fantasy articles for ESPN.
This system pretends you are playing against normal shmoes but you are playing against algorhythms. If the algorithm creators are also dipping their beaks, it's the house sitting down and playing poker next to you in a Hawaiian shirt, pretending to be drunk.
Na, I strongly doubt it's gonna get shut down. These DFS sites are an unbelievable boom, not just to the DFS companies, but to the NBA, NFL, MLB, and all their media partners. The data they've shown about how drastically it increases their live viewership is astounding. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked if it's projected growth played a large part in the NBA's insanely lucrative new TV deal.
Sports betting has always been pretty easy to sweep under the rug due to it's ties to even more chance-related forms of gambling like slots and all that stuff. The NBA has been in favor of legalizing it, but the other leagues and the NCAA have not.
But DFS is now a HUGE part of what all the major league and media companies are doing. People keep laughing at ESPN shilling for DraftKings, but it goes beyond just taking the cash from DraftKings... It draws in thousands, maybe millions more eyeballs for MNF, the NBA, and their other properties which means more advertising $$, etc. The combined forces of the NBA, NFL, MLB and other leagues are a fairly strong lobbying force, and you can bet they will join in the fight to keep them afloat.
There was a really interesting article on (I think) SI today showing what the actual legal landscape of the debate is. If you look at who the loudest lawmakers are that making a fuss about regulating it are, you'll see a lot of them aren't concerned about stopping DFS but rather about legalizing sports betting as well. The article (which was written by a lawyer) made the point that DFS is actually much closer to playing the stock market, which can be researched and is based on a collection of variables and measures of human performance, than it is to straight gambling, which often relies on a single result. But then again, you can probably make the same argument for sports betting and for things like poker. Games that probably deserve to be edged more towards a game of skill than a game of chance. And of course, the stock market is highly regulated as well. So too, should DFS be.
That said, the insider info stuff is a HUUUUGE problem, and it's
definitely gonna get the DFS in a world of hurt. They'll get regulations put in place, which will restrict their customer base. They'll lose players due to the bad PR and casual players realizing what they're actually up against. And inevitably they're gonna lose market share to the now almost-certain legalization (or semi-legalization) of sports betting.
So DFS won't go away. But their dumb moves over the last few months is gonna grind the Scrooge McDuck-type money they've been hauling in way down.