NFL, DraftKings, FanDuel Sued Over Addictive Product Designs (1)

DraftKings Inc. and FanDuel Inc., in collaboration with data from Genius Sports Ltd. and the National Football League, use sophisticated digital technology to lure people into gambling addiction, a new product liability lawsuit alleged.

Plaintiffs Christopher Sage and Terry Thompson said they’d lost hundreds of thousands of dollars making sports bets on DraftKings and FanDuel’s platforms after being enticed by features that promoted microbetting, parlays, and offers promoted through push notifications.

Their complaint, filed Tuesday in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, brings design defect, negligence, failure-to-warn, emotional distress, and unjust enrichment claims as well as a claim under the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law..

Sage and Thompson respectively said they’d previously engaged in sports betting at brick-and-mortar sports betting parlors and through bookies. During that time they were able to maintain a healthy relationship with their gambling without creating problems in their lives.

That changed when they started using the sportsbook apps, they said. The plaintiffs said they quickly found themselves hooked on the apps and using them to the point that it did affect their personal relationships with family and friends.

Sage made more than $1.6 million worth of wagers on FanDuel, and around $360,000 worth of wagers on DraftKings. He lost $133,000 and $42,000 on the apps respectively. Thompson took out multiple mortgages on his home to continue gambling on the apps, and his home is currently in foreclosure, the complaint said.

The design of the platforms allows microbetting—a form of in-game wagers that can be placed during the course of sporting event—to flourish and creates rewards for the companies “by converting casual sports fans and recreational gamblers into hardcore gambling addicts,” the lawsuit said.

With microbetting, “every half, every quarter, every minute, every second, every pitch, every play, every shot becomes a new gambling opportunity on which customers can repeatedly wager over and over and over again as the game unfolds,” the complaint said.

Those kind of “high-speed, fast-resolving” wagers keep gamblers’ brains hooked on endless betting action, and DraftKings and Fanduel implemented product features designed to push users toward that activity, the lawsuit said.

But the apps can’t implement microbetting without the officially licensed real-time sports game and player data from the NFL and British sports data company Genius Sports, the complaint said.

Not only does Genius Sports license sporting event data from the NFL, the NFL itself also owns a stake in the company, giving the NFL a “direct economic interest in attracting and addicting as many NFL fans as possible through microbetting,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit argued that not all forms of gambling have the same addiction risk. Playing poker with friends is less dangerous than playing a slot machine because the slot machine’s pace of action is much faster and more immersive. Online sportsbooks are more akin to the slot machine, the complaint said.

The online sportsbook products “contain multiple design elements and product features that have been intentionally designed and implemented to be as addictive as possible,” the complaint said.

In addition to live in-game microbetting, the complaint targeted features like parlays—a single bet that links multiple individual wagers together—push notifications, and in-app communications about betting opportunities as particularly addictive.

The defendants didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Tauber Law and the Public Health Advocacy Institute represent the plaintiffs.

The case is Sage v. DraftKings Inc., Pa. Ct. Com. Pl., No. 260303384, complaint filed 3/24/26.