Sports betting and fantasy sports companies DraftKings, FanDuel, Underdog and bet365 have illegally used images and likenesses of Major League Baseball players, according to lawsuits filed Monday by the business arm of the players’ union.

MLB Players Inc., which handles most of the business affairs of the Major League Baseball Players Association, alleged in separate lawsuits in New York and Pennsylvania that the companies used images of players when offering special bets on certain players, even though they had no licensing agreement to do so.

This contrasts with the way these sites handled similar football-related offers, using similar language in their lawsuits.

“In fact, neither DraftKings Sportsbook nor the bet365 platforms offer player images of any kind for football, even though the 2024-25 NFL season recently began and the same types and breadth of bets are available on the platforms for football as for baseball, and even though the NFL is the most popular sport for betting in America,” Players Inc. alleged in the lawsuit against DraftKings and Bet365. “Instead, defendants use MLB player images on their platforms for their own commercial benefit to more closely associate their platforms with those MLB players, encourage use of their platforms, and entice users to place bets on the websites or apps.”

These are the second and third lawsuits the MLBPA has filed over name, image and likeness (NIL) issues in about a month. Players Inc. sued the Pittsburgh Pirates and gas station chain Sheetz in mid-August, and the parties quickly settled out of court.

The MLBPA also recently pledged its support to the Japanese professional baseball union in NIL matters.

There was no immediate response to emails sent to the companies concerned.

(Photo: Rich Graessle / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)