The NCAA has determined that college athletes will lose a year of eligibility if they are caught using fantasy sites such as FanDuel or DraftKings.
… any athlete found to be gambling on college sports (includes daily fantasy such as Draft Kings) automatically loses a year of eligibility.
— Scott Stricklin (@stricklinMSU) September 22, 2015
Student-athletes found to be gambling on fantasy sports (including sites DraftKings/FanDuel) will automatically lose 1 year of eligibility.
— UK Compliance (@ukcompliance) September 23, 2015
Here are more details on the ruling from SportingNews.com:
Specifically, Luck made it clear that “any student-athlete found gambling on any college sport automatically loses a year of eligibility,” according to Stricklin’s tweet.
Technically speaking, as MSU’s SB Nation blog points out, DraftKings and FanDuel are considered “games of skill” and not necessarily gambling, which is why Luck had to clarify the NCAA’s stance. The NCAA told Sporting News that regardless of whether DFS games are considered gambling or skill, at issue is the idea that student-athletes are “putting something at risk” to potentially “win something in return.”
“Sports wagering threatens both the integrity of the game and the wellbeing of student-athletes. NCAA members schools have defined sports wagering as putting something at risk – such as an entry fee – with the opportunity to win something in return, which includes fantasy league games,” said NCAA spokeswoman Emily James in an email to Sporting News. “Because of this, student-athletes, coaches, administrators and national office staff may not participate in sports wagering, including fantasy league games with a paid entry fee.”
