Colorado is debating whether to form an Office of Fantasy Sports to regulate and create rules around pay-for-play fantasy sports leagues. The industry estimates that 800,000 people in Colorado are fantasy sports players, and 150,000 pay in the daily sports leagues.
Highlights from Capitol Conversation with Bente Birkeland:
On How these Leagues Work:
Joey Bunch, Denver Post
"What's happened is people like DraftKings and FanDuel have formed these jackpots, you can pay an entry fee, and then compete against hundreds, if not thousands, of other players and win jackpots as big as a million dollars."
Ramsey Scott, Colorado Statesman
"There were some issues last year with potential insider trading I guess you might call it, where an employee from one company was talking to another company and getting lists of players. Which, the way the game is worked, if you know what your competition is putting up, what players are on their team, you can kind of game the system. Places like New York are recognizing this as potentially gambling and have been shutting it down."
On Whether it's Gambling
Joey Bunch, Denver Post
"That's been the debate. You know games of chance are things like lotteries and things like casinos, but in fantasy leagues you draft a team, you look at the other team's lineup. There's a lot of strategy that goes into it."
Ramsey Scott, Colorado Statesman
"I've been playing both daily fantasy and season long fantasy for several years, and it really is a matter of, the more you study, the more chance you have to be successful. It is a skill game, but there definitely is an element of gambling to it."
