The NCAA is suing sports betting company DraftKings for alleged trademark infringement, the college sports institution said in a statement on Friday.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday in federal court in the Southern District of Indiana, is tied to the sportsbook operator’s use of terms such as March Madness, Final Four, along with other terms related to the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, the NCAA said.
According to ESPN, DraftKings’ mobile app included numerous references to March Madness, Sweet Sixteen, Elite 8 and Final Four next to various betting options.
A NCAA logo flag at the Hall of Champions at the NCAA National Office. Kirby Lee-Imagn ImagesOther sportsbooks were also displaying terms related to the NCAA Tournament on Friday, ESPN reported.
In its statement, the NCAA said that DraftKings’ “unauthorized use of its trademarks is flatly contrary to one of the Association’s most deeply held institutional values: that sports betting must not be associated with, endorsed by, or linked to NCAA championships or the student-athletes who compete in them.”
“The NCAA makes clear in the complaint and its motion that every day that DraftKings continues to use these marks, millions of sports fans — and, critically, college students and young adults who are particularly susceptible to gambling harm — are exposed to the false suggestion that the Association has authorized or endorsed DraftKings’ gambling platform,” the institution added.
“This causes confusion among NCAA members and student-athletes that the Association is involved with and/or endorsing sports betting, which is in direct contradiction to its robust education, integrity monitoring, anti-harassment and advocacy efforts to end risky prop bets.”
The lawsuit is tied to the sportsbook operator’s use of terms such as March Madness, Final Four, along with other related to the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments. SOPA ImagesDraftKings pushed back against the accusations.
“DraftKings does not use the term March Madness as a trademark, but rather uses it in plain text and as a fair use in the same manner that other tournaments are displayed, such as the NIT, in order to accurately identify the different tournaments and their respective games,” a DraftKings spokesperson told The Post in a statement Saturday. “This is protected speech under the First Amendment and is not a violation of any brand’s trademark.We are confident that the courts will deny this request for an injunction.”
On Tuesday, NCAA president Charlie Baker filed a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, requesting that it suspend prediction markets from offering trades on college sporting events.
–The Post’s Erich Richter provided additional reporting
