Major League Baseball’s players’ union sued DraftKings and FanDuel on Monday, accusing the sports betting companies and two other companies of using the names and images of hundreds of players on their platforms without permission.
The players are seeking compensatory and punitive damages from DraftKings and Britain’s bet365 Group in federal court in Philadelphia, and from FanDuel and Brooklyn-based Underdog Fantasy in a New York state court in Manhattan.
MLB players called online sports betting “big business” and accused the defendants of “blatant” violations of state privacy laws, saying the image of nearly every active player appears on their websites and mobile apps.
“For professional athletes, the ability to control the commercial use of their names, images and likenesses is a critical return on their significant career investments,” the players said.
Such control also helps players avoid being seen as supporting companies and products they don’t like, the players added.
DraftKings, FanDuel and Underdog did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bet365 could not immediately be reached after business hours. Lawyers for the players did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.
Monday’s lawsuits came three weeks after the National Football League (NFL) players’ union, which is represented by the same law firm as MLB players, sued DraftKings for refusing to pay for the use of NFL players’ likenesses on so-called non-fungible tokens.
In Monday’s complaints, the MLB players stated that the defendants do not use images of NFL players on their platforms.
They said the only reason to treat baseball players differently was to increase “consumer appeal” and attract more bets, since the “core information” bettors needed was statistical data, not the players’ appearance.
For example, users could bet that Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies or Pete Alonso of the New York Mets would hit more than two home runs in a particular game without seeing the “valuable image” of the respective players, the complaints said.
The cases are MLB Players Inc. v. DraftKings Inc. et al., U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, No. 24-04884; and MLB Players Inc. v. Underdog Sports Inc. et al., Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County.
