Daily Fantasy NYC Rally A PR Stunt? FanDuel, DraftKings File Suit As Industry, Fans Gather Outside New York AG Office

Daily fantasy sports service FanDuel announced Friday it would file a suit to block New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from banning daily fantasy sports, Bloomberg reported. Soon after DraftKings announced it had taken legal action, as well.

"Today, we have taken decisive legal action to prevent a unilateral, misinformed and legally misguided attempt by the New York attorney general to act as 'judge, jury and executioner' for daily fantasy sports in New York," DraftKings said in a statement. "We are asking the New York Supreme Court to rule that the attorney general’s cease-and-desist letter is unconstitutional, an abuse of discretion, and simply wrong."

The move from the two major daily fantasy services comes after the companies helped organize a rally, attended by daily fantasy employees and fans, outside the attorney general's office Friday morning. FanDuel, along with competitor DraftKings, put out a call to players ahead of the event in New York City, which drew a few hundred attendees. It was officially an event for Fantasy Sports For All, which has circulated a petition against a potential ban from Schneiderman, who declared Wednesday daily fantasy is illegal gambling.

The rally in New York Friday was attended by a number of employees of daily fantasy services, many of whom declined comment. Jason Faria, who said he headed up customer support strategy for FanDuel, said he came out because "we'd like to show support" for the industry.

FanDuel and Draftkings had both previously stated they intended to fight the attorney general's attempt at barring their services. The same day FanDuel said it would file a suit, the New York Daily News reported DraftKings hired high-powered attorney David Boies and his partner Jonathan Schiller for their legal team.