Indiana Supreme Court Rules Against Student Athletes In Fantasy Sports Rights Of Publicity Case

In a landmark decision, the Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that student athletes do not have a right of publicity basis to prevent fantasy sports companies from using their names, pictures and/or statistics without the athletes' consent under the State's statute.

Why did the Court find no preemptive right of publicity for athletes featured in fantasy sports contests?

Readers will recall our previous blogs chronicling this class action lawsuit filed by former student-athletes challenging DraftKings and FanDuel's use of their names, images and on-field statistics on and through the companies' respective fantasy sports websites and platforms. The companies charge users a fee to access such information which allows them to assess the athletes' weekly performance and to assemble their virtual fantasy teams. However, the student-athletes claimed that the companies' use of their names and likenesses to operate and promote the fantasy sports contests without the student-athletes' consent was a violation of their rights of publicity under Indiana law.

The Indiana Supreme Court disagreed. Despite finding that DraftKings and FanDuel's use of the student-athletes' names, images, and likenesses for a commercial purpose without consent fell within the prohibitions of the right of publicity statute, the court determined that the information was sufficiently newsworthy to be exempt from liability under the statutory exception for such material. The Court concluded that the use does not amount to an unauthorized advertisement of the product by the student-athletes. Rather, the Court deemed the use equivalent to newspapers' use of the such identifying and statistical information. Moreover, the Court was not convinced that application of the newsworthy material exception is limited...