The NCAA alleged DraftKings is infringing on its trademarks for March Madness in a lawsuit filed Friday in Indiana.
The league wants DraftKings, its employees, and any notified partners to immediately stop using any of its college basketball trademarks or similarly confusing language in sports betting related materials. It also requested the greater of treble damages or treble DraftKings’ profits.
DraftKings denied infringing on the NCAA’s trademarks in a statement to the AP.
“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,” DraftKings said. “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.”
NCAA wants DraftKings to stop before next round
The NCAA wants an emergency temporary restraining order before the start of the Sweet 16 on Thursday.
It proposed a schedule that sees the NCAA file supporting evidence by noon Monday, DraftKings responding by noon Wednesday and a decision made on its TRO motion at 9 am Thursday “or as soon as possible thereafter.”
DraftKings had not filed anything with the District Court for the Southern District of Indiana as of Sunday afternoon.
Other sportsbooks take action
While most operators used generic college basketball tournament language on their many Twitter posts since Thursday, multiple operators had used trademarks in their apps through Saturday. Some of them changed that by Sunday.
BetMGM listed Sunday’s second-round games under a “Men’s March Matchups” header. The section was previously called “Men’s March Madness” Saturday afternoon. Caesars also removed the use of March Madness from its boosts section on Sunday.
Neither DraftKings nor FanDuel appeared to remove any of the trademarks mentioned in the suit.
Operators including bet365, BetRivers and Penn‘s theScore Bet had not used any of the trademarks.
NCAA has deal with Genius Sports
Genius Sports is the exclusive provider of NCAA sports data through 2032 under an expanded partnership announced in April 2025.
That means U.S. sportsbooks have no choice but to partner with Genius to be an Authorized Gaming Licensee given the official data provider provision in many sports betting laws across the country. Along with the data, “sportsbooks will gain exclusive access to official NCAA data feeds alongside NCAA marks and logos,” according to the release.
According to the lawsuit, that does not include any March Madness related trademarks:
“At no time has the NCAA authorized, accepted, or maintained any sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation with DraftKings—or any sports wagering operator—including regarding use of the NCAA Basketball Marks.”
Genius Sports did not respond to an out-of-hours request for comment.
Accusations against DraftKings
The issues began last week, when the NCAA says DraftKings began using the trademarks “to trade on – and usurp – the immense goodwill, recognition, and consumer trust embodied in those Marks at the price moment of peak public attention.”
The filing then includes nine pages of screenshots highlighting the use of various trademarks across the DraftKings app and the DraftKings Network platform.
Along with using the exact trademarks, the NCAA says DraftKings’ 2026 March Mania Survivor Contest is “confusingly similar” to its March Madness trademark.
Focus on props an issue
The NCAA mentions DraftKings’ focus on in-game prop betting in its opening paragraph aboutb the company.
“Defendant DraftKings is a for‑profit sports betting and online gambling company that aggressively markets and monetizes wagering products tied to major sporting events nationwide, including the Tournaments, through an array of pervasive advertising campaigns that push gambling participation among vulnerable populations. Additionally, through its promotion of highly specific prop bets and micro-bets, DraftKings creates incentives and opportunities that threaten the integrity of competitions by exposing student-athletes to improper influence, pressure, and inducements to manipulate on-court conduct.”
The NCAA and President Charlie Baker have been loudly calling limits on college betting, including banning player specific prop bets, since 2024. It has advertised its Draw the Line campaign, which educates about the risks of sports betting, often throughout the 2026 tournaments.
Some athletes are joining the conversation as well. The Big Ten Conference Student-Athlete Issues Commission issued a statement in February urging Baker to get player props banned.
