The NCAA on Friday asked a federal court in Indianapolis for a temporary restraining order to stop online sportsbook DaftKings from using trademarks such as March Madness and Final Four to promote sports wagering.
As reported by David Purdum of ESPN, the NCAA claims in its lawsuit that it asked DraftKings to remedy the situation and that the sportsbook removed some "egregious" uses of the trademarked terms but "maintained that it has the right to use the NCAA's trademarks directly on its sports betting apps."
The DraftKings app had multiple references of March Madness, Sweet Sixteen, Elite 8 and Final Four alongside betting options Friday night, ESPN reported, adding that other sportsbooks were displaying March Madness and other terms on their betting apps at the same time.
"Betting on sporting events is now legal in at least 39 states, and many professional leagues have partnerships with online sportsbooks such as DraftKings and FanDuel. The NCAA has no such deals, and the association has pushed hard to limit the types of bets sportsbooks offer on college events," Ralph D. Russo wrote Friday for The Athletic. "Specifically, the NCAA has lobbied state and federal lawmakers to ban prop bets, which allow gamblers to wager on the performance of individual players, on college games."
In a statement, the NCAA said 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.”
By using terms such as March Madness, Final Four, Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight in its promotional and marketing campaigns, DraftKings is falsely suggesting the NCAA is endorsing the platform, the NCAA said.
“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 Athletic. “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.
In a recent study, the NCAA found that almost half of Division I men’s basketball players experience online, verbal or physical abuse by fans for betting losses, The Athletic reported.
"Prop bets have been at the heart of several cases that involved players allegedly manipulating games and shaving points. NCAA investigations have resulted in numerous players being ruled permanently ineligible," Russo wrote. "The NCAA has eased penalties and tried to loosen some of the rules around legal gambling related to college athletes and those who work for athletic programs. Last year, the NCAA moved toward lifting a ban on legal betting of professional sports for college athletes but later pivoted and left the current rule in place."
