## Facts

- Former college football players sued FanDuel and DraftKings in a putative class action under the Indiana Right of Publicity Statute, Ind. Code § 32-36-1.
- The companies operated online fantasy-sports contests where users paid entry fees, selected rosters of real athletes, and competed for cash prizes based on real-world performance statistics.
- The contests and related advertising used the players’ names, photographs, and game statistics without consent or compensation.
- Defendants asserted statutory exemptions for use of a personality’s attributes in material with “political or newsworthy value” and in connection with reporting an event or topic of general or public interest.
- The district court dismissed the complaint on the pleadings under Rule 12(b)(6), concluding the statutory exemptions applied.
- On appeal, the Seventh Circuit certified to the Indiana Supreme Court whether consent was required for use of players’ attributes in the contests and advertising.
- The Indiana Supreme Court answered that the statute’s exception for material with newsworthy value includes fantasy-sports operators’ use of college players’ names, pictures, and statistics for online fantasy contests.

## Issues

1. Whether Indiana’s right-of-publicity statute required consent for use of college athletes’ names, pictures, and statistics in pay-to-enter fantasy-sports contests and related advertising.
2. Whether alleged illegality of the fantasy-sports contests as gambling barred defendants from invoking the statute’s newsworthy/public-interest exceptions.

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of the complaint.
- The court held that, under Indiana law as authoritatively construed by the Indiana Supreme Court, defendants’ use fell within the statute’s “newsworthy value” exception, so consent was not required.
- The court rejected an implied “illegal-activity” limitation on the statutory exceptions, finding no textual basis for it and concluding the state court’s answer foreclosed it.
- The court denied remand for factual development on gambling illegality because statutory interpretation, not additional facts, controlled the outcome.

## Legal Principles

- In diversity cases, federal courts must follow a state supreme court’s definitive interpretation of state law, including after certification.
- Under Ind. Code § 32-36-1, use of a person’s identity in material with “newsworthy value” or concerning topics of general or public interest is exempt from right-of-publicity liability.
- The newsworthy exception turns on the nature of the content, not the identity of the publisher; commercial entities may qualify.
- Courts will not add extra-textual restrictions to statutory defenses absent statutory language creating them.

## Conclusion

The Seventh Circuit held that Indiana’s statutory newsworthy/public-interest exception defeats right-of-publicity claims based on fantasy-sports operators’ use of college athletes’ names, images, and statistics in paid contests, and it declined to recognize an implied illegality-based bar to that exception.


Daniels v. FanDuel, Inc., 909 F.3d 876 (7th Cir. 2018)