Colorado DFS Company Legal Under Pari-Mutuel Betting Laws

Colorado Daily Fantasy Sports A Form Of Pari-mutuel WageringColorado residents who enjoy playing fantasy sports might be skeptical in signing up for a site like FanDuel or DraftKings amidst rumors of their financial and legal troubles. Fortunately, there’s already a legal and regulated alternative awaiting residents from all walks of life in the great state of Colorado. Mile High Fantasy Contests, a subsidiary of the Nevada-based company USFantasy Sports.

The reason that this company is able to offer regulated daily fantasy is that it enters into a market that is already legal in the state – pari-mutuel wagering. The company has integrated two separate industries – daily fantasy sports and the pari-mutuel system of wagering – combining them to create a wholly new DFS experience that doesn’t need to remain in a gray area.

Mile High Fantasy offers contests on football, basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, and Nascar racing. Players can choose the level of difficulty at which they play, from beginner to expert. The entry costs for contests are placed in a pool, per the pari-mutuel system, and winners are paid out of that rather than through a House-backed fund.

The interesting thing about Mile High Fantasy is how the “price” of a player is determined. The pari-mutuel system allows for transparency, as the pools are updated to reflect their totals on a constant, real-time basis. In addition to choosing the level of difficulty, players can also choose the price points at which they play, so that they’re never over budget. Basically, the games can be tailored to almost your exact specifications.

Contest types are based on pari-mutuel wagers. You can have a Win/Place/Show competition, bet on a type of Exacta, Daily Double, Trifecta, Pick 3, Superfecta, or Pick 4-7 based on the sport that you want to wager on. Players earn points the same way they do at other DFS platforms in order to achieve a specific type of bet. The rules for each sport are different, so heading to their website to find out exactly how to play each one is your best bet.

When you play at Mile High Fantasy, you can place fantasy bets online or at participating racetracks and Off-track betting locations in the state. Mile High Fantasy Contests, for all intents and purposes, are conducted in the same way that pari-mutuel racebooks are. Which is why they can be found at the same locations.

President of USFantasy, Victor Salerno, helped grow the system of pari-mutuel DFS, starting in Nevada and expanding to Colorado. He is confident that “DFS will continue to grow in Colorado with the USFantasy platform. We are prepared to launch it as a mobile platform in July [2017].” Salerno is convinced that pari-mutuel DFS is the way of the future, as salary cap fantasy contests are “unsustainable”.

This claim is backed up by the financial troubles that both FanDuel and DraftKings have had. The two companies are attempting to form a merger to avoid bankruptcy. FanDuel and DraftKings make up roughly 90% of the current DFS market in the United States. Their financial situation begs the question - If the two biggest companies in Salary Cap Fantasy can’t make it work, who can?

Salerno believes that USFantasy will lead the way. The ultimate plan is to expand across the US in a mostly mobile platform. Until the site rolls out its cross country plan, though, Colorado residents will be the ones who get to reap the benefits of this new form of DFS early, as they’ll be the first to beta test the product. So if you’re a resident of Colorado looking for legal betting sites in sports betting states, this seems like an interesting way to get in on the action.

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