Rotoplay, Inc., a Hershey, Pennsylvania online fantasy sports paying game company, has filed a lawsuit against British Sportingbet plc, a competitor in the fantasy sports games, citing that Sportingbet engaged in copyright infringement and unfair competition.  The copyright infringement pertains to the two sports lottery games “Football Lottery” and “Baseball Lottery”, unique contests that Rotoplay has offered its clients since 2001.  The lawsuit claims that Sportingbet copied them and is offering them on their one franchise of sites as original games.

Rotoplay claims that Sportingbet took the two games that were developed for lottery play and copied every aspect of it without making any changes to the original formats or requesting intellectual property permission to use it.  Everything from the HTML coding to the rules had been used verbatim.  According to Rotoplay’s President Korey Grander, the two companies had been in talks for months about licensing the games for Sportingbet’s use.  Nothing had been resolved and Rotoplay maintain’s that the other company simply stole them.  

The games work by having the customers choose six fantasy sports players out of a list of fifty-four who they feel will score the most points in their individual game for a particular week.  The points are then tallied based on how the athletes did and prizes awarded for the one with the most points.  Additional prize pools were also available for the customer who selected four, five, or six of the top players in a given week.  These lotteries were for pro and college American style football, basketball, baseball, and other popular sporting events and can still be accessed at http://www.rotoplay.com.

RotoPlay, Inc. was purchased by Canadian iGaming Corporation of Vancouver.  The purchase was with the intent to broaden their core range of games for their customers and they expect their new division to grow and flourish as part of their family.  The fantasy sports industry is growing at a rate of seven to ten percent every year.  It generates more than a million dollars per year and has over eighteen million players.  These types of lottery games were recently excluded from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

As a member of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA), Rotoplay is part of a movement that will help promote the fantasy sports industry and encourages safe play and participation in fantasy sports leagues.  The take great strides in making sure the individual player’s consumer and commercial rights are protected while they engage in the games online.