Questions continue to swirl around fantasy sports versus the house but a new product from Underdog Fantasy is removing that piece of puzzle from the offering.
A new product, Pick’em Champions, is removing the against-the-house element of the traditional pick’em game. Instead, players will be competing in pools. For the traditional Underdog Pick’em offering, users enter a lineup and, if they accurately predict the outcomes of all players involved, they win.
Pick’em Champions still involves predicting whether players will exceed or fall short of a statistical benchmark, but competing against others. If multiple people successfully predict all of the outcomes, they will share in the prize pool.
The product is currently live in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Wyoming.
“We’ve built Underdog to innovate and help sports fans increase their enjoyment with sports and that is exactly what we are doing with Pick’em Champions,” said Jeremy Levine, founder and co-CEO of Underdog. “I’m very excited for what comes next. As we continue to evolve Champions, I think it very well could become the best game we offer. Recently, a few regulators have said that in their states fantasy should be peer-to-peer. While we don’t agree with that interpretation of the law, we developed Champions to be peer-to-peer. “
Mississippi and Wyoming are two states where the status of pick’em vs. the house has changed in recent months with regulators.
Wyoming regulators sent a cease and desist order to operators like Underdog in July. Earlier this month, Mississippi regulators sent a letter to all fantasy operators in the state clarifying the regulator’s stance that pick’em vs. the house is a violation of state regulations.
While many fantasy operators have stayed out of Mississippi, Underdog had previously offered Pick’em against the house. The against-the-house product is no longer available, however, Pick’em Champions is effective Nov. 13.
