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Conviction by Clickwrap?
FEATURED
May 20, 2026
Conviction by Clickwrap?
By: Robert Ward
“Terms and conditions” are ubiquitous. They appear on baseball tickets,[1] in air conditioning repair agreements,[2] and, of course, on essentially every website we visit on a daily basis. By now, as the Seventh Circuit has put it, reasonable consumers “understand there will be terms and conditions associated with using a website.”[3] When disputes about terms and conditions are at issue in court, they often arise in the context of a consumer claim. A customer sues a website operator for, say, violating state privacy law. The operator responds by pointing out that the customer agreed to resolve disputes in arbitration, not in court. The customer opposes, arguing, for example, that they never agreed to arbitrate because the sign-up screen was too…
Cold Water on Insider Trading Fears: Prediction Markets Miss the 2026 NFL Draft
April 29, 2026
Cold Water on Insider Trading Fears: Prediction Markets Miss the 2026 NFL Draft
By: John Mikuta
From April 23 to April 25, the National Football League (“NFL”) held its annual player selection draft. Over 800,000 fans gathered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to watch Commissioner Roger Goodell announce the picks live, with millions more watching on TV and other digital platforms.[1] But the NFL Draft is not just a spectator event—both traditional sportsbooks and prediction-market platforms allowed customers to risk money predicting which…
After Ciminelli: Are the Feds Betting Too Big on Wire Fraud?
April 23, 2026
After Ciminelli: Are the Feds Betting Too Big on Wire Fraud?
By: Abbey Block
Can a technical violation of a website’s terms and conditions constitute a violation of the federal wire fraud statute? A federal court will soon decide just how broadly the statute may sweep, and whether all such forms of potentially dishonest conduct are subject to such stringent criminalization. On Monday, all eyes will be on the District Court for the Eastern District of New York when…
Ohtani-Mizuhara Scandal: A Case for Regulated Sports Betting, Not Against It
April 11, 2024
Ohtani-Mizuhara Scandal: A Case for Regulated Sports Betting, Not Against It
By: Jake Gray
Shohei Ohtani finds himself at the center of a sports betting scandal and regulated sports betting naysayers have taken the opportunity to toot their own horns. The opening line of this LA Times article, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik, states: “Question for Major League Baseball: How do you like your sports betting partnerships now?” His implication is that the MLB’s embrace of sports betting…
Pennsylvania’s Aggressive and Conflicting Approach to Skill Gaming and Versus the House Fantasy Sports Operators
April 5, 2024
Pennsylvania’s Aggressive and Conflicting Approach to Skill Gaming and Versus the House Fantasy Sports Operators
By: Steven Eichorn
The early part of 2024 has proven to be unexpectedly eventful in Pennsylvania in regards to sports betting, fantasy contests, and skill games. There is always an interesting dynamic- and sometimes tension- in regards to the different regulatory regimes and which one applies to a specific platform. For example, who takes ownership over a game that offers NFL themed lottery tickets? What regulation applies to…
Say it Ain’t So, Oh!
April 3, 2024
Say it Ain’t So, Oh!
By: James Trusty
The Shohei Ohtani betting scandal has receded from view for the moment, but its brief surfacing last week provided fundamental guidance on how not to manage a crisis faced by a professional athlete, while also giving rise to some serious issues for Major League Baseball (“MLB”) to address in the near future. Lawyers and publicists in the niche world of crisis management unofficially swear a…
A Positive Result of Legalized Sports Betting is Solution for Betting Corruption and Match Fixing
March 26, 2024
A Positive Result of Legalized Sports Betting is Solution for Betting Corruption and Match Fixing
By: Sara Dalsheim
This month, Sportradar released its “Betting Corruption and Match-Fixing Report” (the “Report”) from the company’s Integrity Services Division[1] The Report covered approximately 850,000 sporting events and matches across 70 sports. Sportradar identified a total of 1,329 suspicious matches in 2023, in 11 sports in 105 countries. This represented a marginal increase over the 1,212 suspicious matches Sportradar detected in 2022. 99.5% of sporting events displayed…
Ifrah Law Interviews David Purdum on Sports Integrity
March 22, 2024
Ifrah Law Interviews David Purdum on Sports Integrity
By: Jake Gray
The stakes have never been higher for sports leagues and athletes to maintain the integrity of their contests. The mere possibility of thrown games, points shaven, or dishonest referee calls turns many bettors into pseudo-detectives, scrutinizing outcomes on behalf of their lost wagers. We interviewed David Purdum, an investigative journalist who writes on the sports betting industry for ESPN, for his thoughts on sports integrity…
