New Jersey daily fantasy sports operator FastPick has rolled out NFL contests in time for football season.
As the state attempts to win the right to offer sports betting in its case in front of the US Supreme Court, FastPick features one of the closest legal alternatives outside of Nevada to date.
What is FastPick?
FastPick is essentially a parlay-based DFS platform available to residents of New Jersey. Developed by Sport Analytics & Data, the client rolled out this summer through a partnership with Resorts Atlantic City.
Unlike most DFS platforms, FastPick is more or less a competition against the house. Users select from a weekly list of head-to-head matchups, trying to identify which of two players will score more fantasy points. An entry consists of between three and ten selections, and each leg must be a winner to collect a payout.
Here is a look at some of the matchups on offer from FastPick for Week 1:
When it first went live, FastPick only offered MLB contests, and later soccer.
Contests range from $10 to $200, and users can win as much as $100,000 with a maximum bet.
Sports betting or daily fantasy sports?
Perhaps more than other operators, the FastPick concept straddles the line between skill gaming and gambling.
A parlay-based, house-banked sports contest is just called “sports betting” in most places. By incorporating elements of DFS, though, FastPick has found a formula to operate legally. It’s currently the closest thing to legal sports betting that exists outside of Nevada and Delaware, where you can place team-based parlay bets.
The layout and the messaging on its website clearly position FastPick on the DFS end of the spectrum, though:
Familiar with Daily Fantasy Sports? FastPick is just like it – except we’ve moved the goalposts in your favor. No sharks. No salary caps. No whole teams to worry about.
FastPick’s launch preceded Gov. Chris Christie’s signature on the bill that legalizes daily fantasy sports in New Jersey. And that’s probably not a coincidence.
Casinos looking to offer something similar must wait for a review before they can launch a DFS product of their own, under the law. By locking in its partnership in advance, though, FastPick can operate without interruption during Resorts’ licensing process.
Embracing the DFS moniker is still a legislative necessity at this point, but that may not be the case for long. New Jersey’s challenge of PASPA, the federal sports betting ban, seems to be gaining widespread support.
More DFS spinoffs coming?
FastPick is the first DFS platform to partner with a land-based casino. But it likely won’t be the last. While Nevada is the only state that permits single-game sports wagering, a few clever startups are finding ways to approximate betting via daily fantasy sports.
USFantasy Sports is a form of parimutuel fantasy sports that’s only available in Nevada and Colorado, for now, at least. With dozens of locations already established in those two states, USFantasy may soon test the waters elsewhere, too. “We are aggressively working to expand our company in other legal gaming jurisdictions,” its website says.
Then there’s EagleStrike, a kiosk-based daily fantasy sports operator that hosts contests on the East Coast. EagleStrike’s users set lineups in person and compete against players using its network of terminals across five states. At least one other company has hinted at similar plans in the region.
New Jersey newcomer Hard Rock also has plans to host daily fantasy sports when it reopens Trump Taj Mahal.
