- Underdog has relaunched its pick’em Champions daily fantasy sports product in Mississippi
- The company took all pick’em products off the Mississippi market in early 2024
- Only the company’s Champions pick’em product will be offered
Underdog has successfully relaunched its Champions pick’em daily fantasy sports product in Mississippi.
Underdog pulled the entirety of its pick’em products from Mississippi in February 2024, including its traditional and Champions pick’em games. Today, it relaunched the peer-to-peer pick’em DFS product in the Magnolia State.
“Mississippi fans are going to love our Pick’Em Champions games, and we were able to launch in time for football season,” Stacie Stern, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Partnerships at Underdog, told Saturday Down South. “The gaming commission applied a professional, thorough, and thoughtful process to ensure our product measured up to the state’s standards, and we look forward to continuing to work with the commission as a licensed operator in Mississippi.”
Underdog Brings Champions Back
Currently, Underdog is the only licensed operator in Mississippi to offer real-money pick’em DFS games. PrizePicks offers a free version of its pick’em product in the state, while FanDuel and DraftKings only offer traditional draft fantasy games.
Underdog pulled all of its pick’em contests from Mississippi in February 2024. Prior to prohibiting the contests, Underdog Fantasy offered its classic pick’em games and its peer-to-peer pick’em games in Mississippi after acquiring a DFS license in the state in 2021.
A company spokesperson in February 2024 offered no comment on why the decision was made to pull the products from the state. However, at the time multiple states were cracking down on fantasy operators and products that focused on player vs. the house contests.
Underdog Fantasy, PrizePicks, and Betr received cease-and-desist letters from the Florida Gaming Control Commission in January 2024, ordering the operators to stop “offering or accepting illegal bets or wagers from [Florida] residents” and “conducting any illegal lotteries.”
The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration also sent cease-and-desist letters to PrizePicks and Underdog Fantasy, alleging the companies were participating as unlicensed sports betting operators in violation of Amendment 100 to the Arkansas Constitution.
California Still DFS Gray Area
Underdog’s largest market, California, is however still very much in flux for the company. Underdog still offers its peer-to-peer pick’em games in the state despite California Attorney General Rob Bonta releasing a legal opinion in July in which he declared daily fantasy sports contests to be illegal.
Bonta wrote it is a crime if a person “[l]ays, makes, offers or accepts any bet or bets, or wager or wagers, upon the result, or purported result, of any trial, or purported trial, or contest, or purported contest, of skill, speed or power of endurance of person or animal, or between persons, animals, or mechanical apparatus.”
He even went so far as to note there is no difference in his opinion for a pick’em or draft style DFS games, declaring both have no place in the state.
Despite the published opinion, Underdog, PrizePicks, FanDuel, and DraftKings have all continued to offer DFS contests in California.
Robert is an expert on sports betting in the United States, specifically the legalization process and regulation surrounding the industry.
