law declared fantasy sports to be a legal game of skill rather than gambling in 2006, companies began thinking of ways to cash in.
“But our game is not gambling,” he adds. “We don’t condone gambling in any way. No money is paid out to players from our company, except for the prizes.”
The prizes, in the company’s estimation, do not constitute gambling. And, given the staggering odds, are probably unlikely to be paid out anyway. Most fantasy leagues on Yahoo, ESPN, and other popular platforms are technically free, but players often agree among themselves to pay a fee to participate, with the winners divvying up the collected fees at the end of the season independent of the platform they’re playing on.
Karchon and Johnson expect new players to have plenty of questions about how their unusual game works, and they acknowledge that it can be hard to explain. But they hope, by making the app a “freemium” offering, that people will be interested enough to give it a whirl.
“It’s one of those games you have to try, and then you’re hooked,” Johnson says.
