In an earnings call in April, Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov said that he wanted his company to go live with a daily fantasy sports (DFS) product by the time the NFL season started. Mission accomplished. On Friday, PokerStars’ parent company officially launched StarsDraft.com in the United States, just in time for the NFL season, which starts this Thursday. This marks the first time a PokerStars-related site has been in the U.S. market since Black Friday in April 2011.
Of course, in April, Amaya Gaming did not even have a DFS site, but it took care of that last month, when it acquired Austin-based site Victiv. Amaya announced it would be rebranding Victiv to StarsDraft and Friday, less than a week before the start of the NFL season, the new branding took effect, as StarsDraft is now up and running.
Those who were already playing on Victiv shouldn’t notice much of a difference other than the name and logo. Player balances, bonuses, and the like are all still intact, and that’s the important thing. Everything else looks the same as before; after all, Amaya didn’t re-invent the wheel – it simply bought Victiv and slapped a new name on it.
And while the look and feel is the same, there is one big difference now that the site is called StarsDraft: Michigan and Canada residents will soon no longer be welcome. Victiv had followed the same course as other DFS sites and excluded residents of Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana and Washington, but it was not until the StarsDraft conversion that Michiganders were left out in the cold, as well. If there is a silver lining, it is that customers from Michigan can still play on the site for the next four months, which will cover the NFL season. In an e-mail to Michigan customers, StarsDraft said:
You are receiving this notice because your account lists Michigan as your registered state of residence.
Following a recent management review of our terms and conditions, we have elected to no longer offer the ability to deposit and fund accounts for Michigan residents.
120-Day Wind Down Period
Starting today, your account will enter into a 120-day wind down period. During this period, your account will retain open and full access of the StarsDraft.com website.
Your account will remain open with full access until January 1, 2016.
Please make sure that you have withdrawn your entire balance before this date. After that point, you will no longer be able to access your Victiv.com account.
We apologize for the abrupt change in policy and hope to be able to reopen access if there’s any future change to this restriction.
The StarsDraft website also says that players from Michigan and Canada may no longer make deposits, though their accounts are still active.
Why the Michigan and Canada exclusions? In a nutshell, fantasy sports lies in a legal gray area in those places. In Michigan, it does not appear that fantasy sports are explicitly illegal, but Michigan Gaming Control Board Director Rick Kalm recently said that he believed playing fantasy sports for real money was illegal, based on his interpretation of state law. Amaya is probably staying away just to be safe. In the meantime, a bill was recently introduced into the state Senate that would amend the state’s gambling laws to make fantasy sports explicitly legal.
As far as Canada is concerned, it’s murky, but again, it looks like fantasy sports are just in a gray area. Amaya would rather play it safe if it isn’t sure if it might get in trouble for allowing Canadians on StarsDraft, so it is just staying away. That isn’t to say that it will never enter the Canadian market – after all, PokerStars operates there – but it just isn’t happening right now.
