NFL Players Association suing Draft Kings over $65 million
The NFL Players Association, or NFLPA, is taking DraftKings to court over alleged breach of contract after the sports betting company shuttered its NFT marketplace. DraftKings is an official betting partner of the league, but now the players’ union claims that the company owes the union $65 million for a licensing agreement in line with the NFT venture.
“The NFLPA is suing NFL-partner DraftKings for breach of contract,” as reported by Margaret Fleming on X, formerly Twitter. The report continues, “DraftKings recently shut down its NFT marketplace. The players union says the sportsbook still owes approx. $65 million for their NFT deal.”
NFLPA vs. DraftKings
© Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
The NFL Players Association filed the civil suit last week in federal court in the Southern District of New York, claiming that DraftKings planned to end a contract it signed in 2021 for use of the names, images, and likenesses of NFL players for the defunct NFT marketplace. Moreover, by shutting down the marketplace, the union claimed that the sports betting company intends to skip out on the minimum guaranteed payments left on the contract.
In the suit, attorneys for the NFLPA cited the income of five DraftKings executives since 2021, which amounted to roughly $261.1 million, though they did not disclose the exact amount of their suit. Meanwhile, the suit also claimed “the total compensation of just these five aforementioned officers since 2021 is approximately quadruple of what DraftKings owes the NFLPA licensors.”
Meanwhile, the same attorneys also referred to the changes in market fervor for NFTs in recent years.
“The impetus or DraftKings’ decision to repudiate its licensing agreement with [NFL Players Association/NFLPA] is simple: the once white-hot market for NFTs has cooled down,” they said, as reported by David Purdum on ESPN.com. “Buyers’ remorse, however, is not a basis to terminate a contract,” the lawyers added.
On the other hand, DraftKings claimed that another suit in Massachusetts caused them to shut down their NFT marketplace and end their contract with the NFLPA. This lawsuit also alleged that the same NFT marketplace violated the state’s securities laws, though the NFLPA lawyers disagreed that the Massachusetts suit fit the criteria for terminating their contract.
Legal recourse
Per the same report, the NFLPA attorneys said, “At the end of the day, and despite DraftKings’ best efforts to muddy the waters, this case is extraordinarily simple. DraftKings’ inability to profitably commercialize the intellectual property it licensed does not excuse performance, and DraftKings must pay what is due.”
The post NFL Players Association suing Draft Kings over $65 million appeared first on ClutchPoints.
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