Toronto-based media company TheScore claims it has a DFS app "that will pass legal muster in both Canada and the U.S.," according to Shoalts & Bradshaw of the GLOBE & MAIL. The company launched the new QuickDraft app on Thursday after "revamping a previous product built by an American company" that TheScore bought last December. The app is "free for its online users, which the company’s management believes makes it legal under the Canadian and U.S. criminal codes." There will be "cash prizes of $100 to $1,000 for the daily winners, albeit much more modest than the hundreds of thousands of dollars offered by the U.S.-based giants." Several lawyers who specialize in gambling laws "believe it should be legal in Canada because the players will not risk any money, only their time, even though they are shooting for a cash prize." There will be "no advertising or sponsorships at first, but the company sees ads as a potential money-maker in future." TheScore will "finance the prize pools" (GLOBE & MAIL, 12/11). In Toronto, Raju Mudhar noted the first QuickDraft games will "focus on football and require players to pick five players -- as opposed to the lineups of nine or 12 athletes that are the formats of most daily fantasy products." Players will "be limited to only one entry per contest" unlike other DFS games that have been scrutinized for allowing professional players to "flood pools with hundreds of entries" (TORONTO STAR, 12/11).
