PrizePicks, Underdog Sports Adjusts Alabama Offerings After Request From Attorney General’s Office

• An industry insider alerted Sports Betting Dime to the new offerings in Alabama
• According to the insider, the daily fantasy operators received a notice from the Alabama Attorney General’s office to alter their offerings to state customers
• Both Underdog Sports and PrizePicks now only offer their “combo” squares to customers, which includes selections of two or more athletes

Daily fantasy sports operators Underdog Sports and PrizePicks have altered their offerings to Alabama customers due to a recent request from the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.

The two DFS operators can no longer offer their over/under type selections with individual athletes to customers. Both Underdog and PrizePicks are limited to offering Alabama customers their “combo” selections, which must include two or more athletes.

Customers in Alabama select between two to six of these “combo” boxes and play against the house, not other individuals like more traditional DFS operators.

You can see an example of the allowed “combo” boxes here:

Alabama Changes Most Recent for DFS Operators

An industry insider alerted Sports Betting Dime to the changes and a PrizePicks company representative confirmed the Alabama Attorney General Office’s request.

“We are appreciative to the officials at the Alabama Attorney General’s Office who have been incredibly collaborative in ensuring that fantasy enthusiasts in the state of Alabama can access our popular skills-based fantasy contests. We now have an updated product offering in Alabama that has become extremely popular over the past month and look forward to innovating additional entertaining game types in the future,” the PrizePicks representative said.

A spokesperson for the Alabama Attorney General’s Office declined to comment on the issue. The Alabama Attorney General’s Office regulates DFS in the state.

Nicholas Green, general counsel for Underdog Sports, thanked the Attorney General for working with Underdog Sports to make the adjustments and for allowing both peer-to-peer and pick’em single-player fantasy contests in the state.

“We were glad to work with the Alabama Attorney General, who decisively interpreted the state’s daily fantasy sports law as allowing both peer-to-peer and our pick’em single-player fantasy contests. We’ve always maintained a fantasy sports license in the state, which the state has renewed multiple times. We’re continuing to offer pick’em with the Attorney General’s approval, with only relatively minor adjustments. We look forward to continuing to make our pick’em game and future game formats available to Alabamans,” he told SBD.

Currently, users in Alabama can no longer include squares with individual athletes in their selections. Customers must use the combo squares.

An Alabama based Xeet (Twitter) user, @BIGNOAH256, provided SBD with a screen capture of PrizePicks denying an entry without combo picks.

Adjustments Not as Severe in Alabama

It’s the latest change for Underdog and PrizePicks, though the requirements in Alabama are not as severe as the DFS operators have recently seen elsewhere in the United States.

In a recent New York State Register update, New York regulators rejected a request from a commenter to alter the state’s proposed DFS rules to allow for such contests offered by PrizePicks and Underdog Sports.

“A commenter objected to proposed Rule 5602.1(a)(4), which would make explicit that contests shall not be based on proposition betting or contests that have the effect of mimicking proposition betting. The Commission believes that a contest offering that is essentially sports betting, which is authorized for licensees and regulated pursuant to Racing Law Article 13 (not Article 14), cannot properly be characterized as IFS simply because an operator labels it as such.”

Both Underdog and PrizePicks have claimed their parlay-style, over-under type offerings fall under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) carveout for games of skill.

Both are licensed to operate in Alabama.