Players have been anticipating the rumored merger between fantasy sports giants DraftKings and FanDuel for many months. Now, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission may throw a wrench into the deal. Also, there is fantasy news from Germany. This week’s special offer is from bet365 Poker, where you can get a €100 bonus and Tournament Tickets Worth €5 free!

US daily fantasy sports site DraftKings officially went live with a beta version in Germany on Thursday. Earlier this year, DraftKings announced it would be going live in Germany during Q1, thanks to a new skill-games license acquired in Malta. (Fantasy soccer site Oulala is the only other company known to have acquired this license.) The full suite of DraftKings fantasy contests will be available to the German population… “Germany is known for its passionate sports fans and we are pleased to welcome them to daily fantasy sports,” DraftKings Chief International Officer Jeffrey Haas said in a press release upon…

New Jersey has taken a step closer to legalising daily fantasy sports (DFS) after a state Assembly committee cleared a bill that would regulate the industry. The proposed legislation sets out rules to charge DFS companies a fee of 10.5% on gross revenue in order to legally operate in the US state. Although the exact amount that the state would collect under this structure is unclear, the NorthJersey.com website said Chris Grimm, a consultant for DFS firms DraftKings and FanDuel, estimated the figure at approximately $1 million (€933,532) each year. More at iGaming Business

Daily fantasy sports site DraftKings is heading to Germany. That’s thanks to a new gaming license the company acquired from the Malta Gaming Authority. The international expansion will occur sometime during Q1, Jeffrey Haas, chief international officer for DraftKings, told Legal Sports Report. It marks the first expansion of DraftKings’ footprint since DraftKings UK went live about a year ago. The core news is that DraftKings announced it had acquired a “Controlled Skill Games License” from the MGA. That is a new type of gaming license — apart from gambling licensing — that specifically looked to account for DFS. Acquiring…

This week, regulations governing fantasy sports contests in the State of Maryland went into effect.  The regulations, implemented pursuant to a 2012 law exempting fantasy sports from the State’s gambling prohibition, vest the Office of the Comptroller with authority to enforce various consumer protection rules aimed at establishing basic rules to ensure fairness in the Maryland fantasy sports industry. What are the key components of the Maryland fantasy sports regulations? The Maryland fantasy sports regulatory scheme provides the Office of the Comptroller with broad regulatory authority over fantasy sports operators, including mandates for, at a minimum, the following: Prohibitions against…

Ohio is shaping up to be one of the major battleground states for the daily fantasy sports industry next year, as a new piece of legislation has surfaced. The legislation comes after a bill that would make DFS illegal was introduced earlier this year. An attorney general memo this year also did little to clear up the legality of DFS in the state. Eight states passed DFS regulatory bills in 2016, with a renewed lobbying push from the industry expected across the country in the new year. State Senator Dave Burke introduced an industry-friendly piece of legislation that would formally…