A lot of attention is on the Grand Canyon State‘s sports betting launch, but that’s about two weeks away. Arizona DFS, on the other hand, starts today.
The largest daily fantasy sports operators, DraftKings and FanDuel, are both live on Day 1. It would be a mistake not to be, considering this is the first day AZ sports betting accounts can be created as well.
How long those operators can function remains an open question. A lawsuit filed Thursday by the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe against the state seeks to stop the launch of sports betting and DFS in Arizona.
Arizona is one of the states DFS operators avoided for years. Former Attorney General Grant Wood issued an opinion against the legality of fantasy sports in 1998.
With neither DraftKings nor FanDuel in the state for years, the two do not have the typical head start with a database of customers. But DFS launching 12 days before sports betting could be plenty of incentive for bettors to sign up with either of those operators first.
Arizona DFS rules to know
There are a few key points to know before jumping into a DFS contest this Saturday.
First, all players must be 21 or older. That’s a bit of an anomaly. Most other states that allow daily fantasy sports let players 18 and older take part.
Funding an account should not be too difficult since Arizona allows customers to deposit with both debit and credit cards.
Who else will launch daily fantasy in AZ?
Four other operators were licensed to launch:
- Fantasy Football Players Championship
- Fantasy Sports Shark
- Underdog Sports
- Yahoo
Notably missing is Monkey Knife Fight, which Bally’s bought for up to $90 million in stock earlier this year.
Bally’s did not respond when asked if the brand was launching in Arizona. The operator was not among the initial licensees listed by the state.
Skipping the DFS launch is a bit surprising considering Bally’s partnered with the WNBA‘s Phoenix Mercury for a betting license and could be building a database. A two-year DFS license costs just $2,000 according to the final rules.
