## Facts

- Colin Dew-Becker and Andrew Wu entered a head-to-head daily fantasy sports (DFS) contest on FanDuel involving NBA games.
- Each paid a $109 entry fee; FanDuel retained $18 and the winner received $200.
- Each participant selected a virtual roster of nine NBA players; fantasy points were based on those players’ real-world game performance.
- Wu’s roster outscored Dew-Becker’s roster 221.1 to 96.3, and Wu received the $200 prize.
- Dew-Becker sued Wu under Illinois’s gambling loss-recovery statute, 720 ILCS 5/28-8(a), seeking to recover $100 he claimed to have lost on an illegal gambling transaction.
- After a bench trial, the circuit court entered judgment for Wu; the appellate court affirmed on the rationale that § 28-8(a) requires gambling “between one person and another person” and FanDuel’s intermediary role prevented that direct relationship.

## Issues

1. Whether a head-to-head DFS contest is “gambling” under 720 ILCS 5/28-1(a).
2. Whether, if not gambling, the participant falls within the statutory exception for a bona fide contest determining skill under 720 ILCS 5/28-1(b)(2).
3. Whether § 28-8(a) permits a loser in a head-to-head DFS contest to recover the claimed loss from the winner.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Illinois affirmed judgment for Wu, but on different grounds than the appellate court.
- The court held the DFS contest was not “gambling” because skill predominated over chance in determining the outcome.
- Because the contest was not gambling, § 28-8(a) did not provide Dew-Becker a right to recover any loss from Wu.
- The court declined to decide whether § 28-8(a) requires a “direct connection” between loser and winner in internet-based contests.
- A dissent would have treated DFS as gambling due to the role of uncontrollable real-world events.

## Legal Principles

- A contest is not a game of chance where skill is the predominant factor determining results (the “predominant factor” test).
- The presence of some chance does not make an activity gambling if skill predominates in outcome determination.
- Under 720 ILCS 5/28-1(b)(2), bona fide contests for the determination of skill are excluded from the statutory definition of gambling.
- The loss-recovery statute, 720 ILCS 5/28-8(a), applies only to losses incurred through “gambling” as defined by the gambling provisions.

## Conclusion

The Illinois Supreme Court held that head-to-head DFS contests of the type at issue are predominantly skill-based and therefore not “gambling” under Illinois law, which barred the plaintiff’s attempt to recover under the gambling loss-recovery statute.


Dew-Becker v. Wu, 178 N.E.3d 1034 (Ill. 2020)