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“During prosecution, the Examiner did not apply the material prior art or straightforward combinations presented here, which render every challenged claim obvious,” according to a DraftKings filing with the patent office.

Citing U.S. code, the gaming company is pushing for an inter parties review while requesting that the board find the 18 claims in question “unpatentable.”

Patent squabbles, including those pertaining to geolocation services, aren’t unheard of in the online gaming space. How things shake out in the Cantor Fitzgerald/DraftKings spat remains to be seen, but it’s possible the deck is stacked against the gaming company.

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Referencing an Australian study on direct marketing and its link to gambling harms, Dr Philip Newall, senior lecturer at the University of Bristol noted that “causality was established by getting a random subset of participants to opt-out of receiving direct marketing offers”.

It was found that “this group then self-reported significantly lower expenditure and harms [ … ] over the next two weeks”.  

They recommended banning direct marketing by operators and affiliates except for essential account or safety communications.

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Separately, the two senators wrote a formal letter to a bevy of pro sport leagues last October requesting additional details on the leagues’ interaction with integrity monitors on suspicious wagering.

Despite Tuesday’s memo, it is not immediately clear if any professional sports league commissioners are willing to testify before Congress on some of the most problematic aspects of sports betting.

Matt is primarily responsible for long-form feature coverage on complex sports betting scandals. He also provides coverage on finance, M&A and other technological developments.