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David Purdum
multiple authors
The NCAA filed a lawsuit against DraftKings on Friday, accusing the sportsbook operator of trademark infringement for its use of March Madness, Final Four and other terms related to the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
According to the lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in the Southern District of Indiana, the NCAA is requesting an emergency temporary restraining order to prevent DraftKings from using its trademark terms.
In the lawsuit, the NCAA said it asked DraftKings to rectify the situation and that the sportsbook removed some “egregious” uses of the trademarked words, but “maintained that it had the right to use the NCAA’s trademarks directly on its sports betting apps.”
DraftKings’ sportsbook app had several references to March Madness, the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite 8 and the Final Four, along with betting options on Friday night. ESPN, which has a business partnership with DraftKings, has contacted the sportsbook for comment.
Sportsbooks other than DraftKings were featuring March Madness and other bets on their betting apps Friday night.
“Because DraftKings is actively violating the NCAA’s rules in the midst of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Division I Basketball Tournaments (“Tournaments”) and the NCAA has consistently refused to affiliate with the gambling industry, this issue is an urgent and critical one to the NCAA’s organizational mission,” the lawsuit reads.
In a release announcing the lawsuit, the NCAA said DraftKings’ “unauthorized use of its trademarks is diametrically opposed to one of the association’s deepest institutional values: sports betting should not be associated, endorsed, or linked to NCAA championships or the student-athletes competing in them.”
The NCAA requested a briefing schedule beginning Monday.
On Tuesday, NCAA President Charlie Baker submitted a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission requesting that the federal regulator suspend prediction markets from offering trading on college events.
