Unlike New York, Illinois and Nevada, Virginia is welcoming fantasy sports betting from sites like DraftKings and FanDuel.
The new “Fantasy Contests Act’ outlines just how those entities are allowed to operate legally. The main takeaway is that Virginia is monetizing fantasy sports; each business like FanDuel or DraftKings must pay a $50,000 annual fee to do business in the state.
All participants must be 18 or older, and employees of fantasy sports companies are prohibited from engaging in public fantasy sports contests.
The law takes care of much of the headline-grabbing trouble fantasy sports have run into lately, but doesn’t quite offer much of an entry point for competition. As other large states have begun to straight-up outlaw fantasy sports betting, startups will have trouble scaling to a point where the $50,000 annual fee in Virginia is acceptable.
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➤ Fantasy Contests Act [Virginia Legislative Information System via The Verge]
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