FanDuel is Adding Golf to its Daily Fantasy Games, But There Are Some Issues

Last week we learned from new PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan that he is open to the idea of allowing legalized sports betting for his league. Monahan is taking an approach similar to that of NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

In an interview with Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner, Monahan said:

"“You look at DraftKings and FanDuel, you look at gaming in the international markets, there’s a lot of opportunity there.” “There’s some complexity, and that complexity has held us back from moving forward. But we will look at it and have an open mind towards it.”"

It seems that this may be progressing quite quickly as FanDuel has added fantasy golf odds before it merges with DraftKings, but as Monahan pointed out; there is definitely some complexity to the situation.

Via Yahoo Finance:

"Some experts believe DFS golf contests, in particular, may constitute illegal gambling. Why? A single PGA Tour tournament arguably would not qualify as “containing multiple events,” a condition of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), which DFS companies initially argued contained an implied carve out that made DFS okay."

Clearly the regulations in certain states could cause a hiccup in fantasy golf gambling, but, even though they are merging, FanDuel’s approach is different than DraftKings and could possibly satisfy the “multiple events” requirement.

"FanDuel players will need to select a new group of golfers for rounds 3 and 4 of a tournament than they had for rounds 1 and 2—perhaps an attempt to satisfy the “multiple events” concern."

While the laws on whether or not golf is legal as a daily fantasy sports game of skill may still be in question, it is quite clear that there is a market for it and the PGA Tour could benefit from joining and becoming less rigid to younger viewers.

People who bet on sports tend to watch them with greater interest. More viewership would not be a bad thing for golf.