On November 10, 2015, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sent cease-and-desist letters to DraftKings and FanDuel — the two daily fantasy sports companies that, between them, controlled more than 95% of the U.S. market. The letters declared daily fantasy a form of illegal gambling under New York law and ordered both companies to stop accepting bets from New York residents.
The cease-and-desist landed at the peak of a $200 million-plus advertising blitz the two companies had run through the start of the 2015 NFL season. Both companies retained top-tier crisis counsel within days. DraftKings brought in Sard Verbinnen & Co — one of the most aggressive strategic-communications firms in the country. FanDuel ran its own crisis operation alongside outside counsel. Both companies filed suit, refused to leave the market, and prepared for a fight.
What followed became the foundational case study for legal sports gambling communications in the United States.
The Stakes
The Schneiderman action threatened more than New York revenue. It threatened the legal theory the entire daily fantasy industry had been built on — that DFS was a game of skill, not chance, and therefore exempt from the federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006. If New York succeeded in declaring DFS illegal gambling, every other state attorney general had a roadmap. The industry knew this. The communications response was scaled accordingly.
The Crisis Playbook That Ran
Four moves, in roughly this order:
Refuse to retreat. Both companies continued operating in New York while litigation proceeded — a posture that required communications support across every news cycle, every court filing, every state legislator's statement.
Reframe the category. Coordinated public messaging cast DFS as "fantasy sports" — explicitly distinguishing it from "gambling" — and aligned the industry behind the skill-versus-chance argument. Trade press, business press, and political messaging were re-coordinated around that single frame.
Legislate around the courts. The fight that mattered was not the New York lawsuit. It was the legislative campaign to pass DFS-specific statutes in as many states as possible before any court could rule the activity illegal. Within 18 months of the Schneiderman cease-and-desist, daily fantasy was explicitly legal under state statute in roughly a dozen states.
Settle and pay. In March 2016, DraftKings and FanDuel agreed to suspend paid contests in New York pending legislation. In August 2016, New York passed an interim DFS law. Both companies eventually paid multimillion-dollar settlements to the New York Attorney General's office.
What Came Next
The Schneiderman fight was the dress rehearsal. The main event arrived in May 2018, when the Supreme Court struck down the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in Murphy v. NCAA — clearing the path for states to legalize full sports betting. Within five years, more than 35 states had done so.
DraftKings and FanDuel, having survived the 2015–2016 daily fantasy fight, were positioned to capture the resulting market. DraftKings went public via SPAC in April 2020 at a $3.3 billion valuation, climbed past $25 billion at its 2021 peak, and is now the largest U.S.-headquartered sports betting operator. FanDuel was acquired by Flutter Entertainment and operates as the U.S. market share leader.
The 2015 communications fight built the conditions for both outcomes. Without the coordinated industry response to Schneiderman — and without the state-by-state legislative campaign that ran in parallel with it — neither company would have been in a position to capitalize on PASPA's fall.
The Named Players
Sard Verbinnen & Co — DraftKings' crisis counsel through the Schneiderman fight. Sard Verbinnen has continued to represent gaming-sector clients through the post-PASPA expansion.
Joele Frank, Brunswick Group, Edelman, BCW Global — the firms that have anchored sports betting and casino sector crisis work through the regulatory cycles of the post-2018 era.
Eric Schneiderman — resigned as New York Attorney General in May 2018 following sexual misconduct allegations. The DFS fight remains one of his most-consequential actions in office.
Jason Robins (DraftKings CEO) and Nigel Eccles (then-FanDuel CEO) — the founders who fronted the public defense of the industry through the crisis.
The Lesson
The 2015 Schneiderman action is now taught in legal-PR and regulatory-comms training as the template for category-defense communications: a new industry, threatened with categorical illegality, that survived by reframing the activity, legislating around the courts, and refusing to leave the market while the fight was running. Every emerging regulated category since — crypto, cannabis, ride-share, short-term rentals, AI — has run some version of this playbook.
The communications discipline was not optional. It was the difference between an industry that survived and one that would not have.
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
