Supreme Court Rejects MLB Fantasy Licensing Fees
June 2, 2008 by Ribbie3b
Filed under Truth/Rumors
One thing is for sure, MLB players make a lot of money! Unfortunatley, they present a valid point when it comes to Fantasy Baseball Companies using their names to generate a profit. However, the Supreme Court did not agree.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Major League Baseball and its players association, leaving intact a ruling that lets a fantasy-sports company use players’ names and statistics without paying licensing fees.
According to the AP-Without comment, the justices declined to hear the case involving a segment of the $1.5 billion fantasy sports industry in the United States, in which participants manage imaginary teams based on the real-life performances of professional players.
The lawsuit involves C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing Inc., a Missouri company unable to obtain a license from a subsidiary of Major League Baseball to use players’ names in C.B.C.’s fantasy baseball games.
The Missouri company sued, saying it did not need a license to continue to sell its fantasy baseball games on its Web site.
Fantasy sport leagues now generate roughly $500 million a year worldwide in fees, advertising and other revenue, according to Jeff Thomas, president of the 150-member Fantasy Sports Trade Association.
Should athletes be entitled to a monetary cut of revenue in return for their names and talent being used to make a third party profit? What do you think? RBI says no!
Oh please, they profit over the use of their stats, which sorted by name. All generated within the public domain.
Have newspapers, sports magazines or any other “3rd party” stat distributor ever have to pay extortion fees from a sport?
of course not..
I stumbled upon this site.. and will stumble away forever..
They want to do more than use names and stats, though. And that is where the issue arose.