The New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association has called pro sports leagues hypocrites in a court brief for supporting fantasy sports—and the betting included—while trying to block New Jersey from instituting a sports-betting plan.
The brief states that the league’s involvement with fantasy sports precludes them from dictating what the state can do.
The filing was made by the association to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The horsemen’s group hopes to begin sports gambling at Monmouth Park Racetrack, but the state’s plans to allow sports betting has been sidelined several times by court rulings. The state has been trying to find a way around a federal ban on sports betting that the state has argued is unconstitutional.
The ban has been upheld by several courts. The state is now trying to usurp the ban by allowing unregulated—or rather self-regulated—sports betting. The state argues that the federal ban only speaks to state-regulated gambling.
The association’s filing argues that the legal concept of “unclean hands” applies because professional sports leagues—which have sued to block the state’s plan—engage in fantasy sports in which contestants bet on the performances of individual players.
“The leagues sponsor, promote, invest in, profit from, and own sports betting business enterprises that engage in the very kinds of sports betting activities the leagues claim irreparably harm them and, thus, entitle them to an injunction,” the brief claims. “Because of their unclean hands, rooted in their hypocrisy, the District Court should not have entertained the leagues’ request for an injunction. Instead, the courthouse doors should have been closed to the leagues.”
The leagues have argued that fantasy sports—based on individual player statistics—is markedly different than betting on a game’s outcome. They argue that expanding such betting will harm the integrity of the games.
Currently, only Nevada allows betting on individual games while Delaware has parlay betting pools in which players must select several teams correctly in order to win money.
