NCAA suing DraftKings over March Madness branding

The NCAA is the latest sports body to make a move on gambling — or at least on how gambling companies use its trademarks.

The NCAA filed suit against DraftKings on Friday in the Southern District of Indiana, alleging the sportsbook operator committed trademark infringement by using March Madness, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and Final Four alongside betting options in its apps.

“Because DraftKings is actively infringing the NCAA’s marks in the middle of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Division I Basketball Tournaments (“Tournaments”) and the NCAA has consistently refused to be affiliated with the gambling industry, this issue is an urgent one and critical to the NCAA’s organizational mission,” the lawsuit says.

In response, in a statement to ESPN, DraftKings said, “DraftKings does not use the term March Madness as a trademark, but rather uses it in plain text and as a fair use in the same manner that other tournaments are displayed, such as the NIT, in order to accurately identify the different tournaments and their respective games.”

To be clear, this is not a morality based anti-gambling lawsuit from the NCAA. The lawsuit is only about DraftKings’ trademark infringement. It’s similar to when companies become skittish around the use of the Super Bowl name in referring to it as “The Big Game.” If the NCAA does get its way here, it could make betting on matchups at DraftKings slightly more annoying by not identifying the well-known round names.

This is not the first time the NCAA has gone after gambling and prediction companies for using their trademarks. In February, the NCAA sent a letter to Kalshi formally requesting they stop using the “March Madness” name to advertise offerings.

These sports betting, and more recent sports prediction companies, have often operated in a gray area. While traditional sportsbooks now operate legally in many jurisdictions, prediction platforms still straddle a murkier regulatory line.

While the NCAA has continued to keep its distance from both sports gambling and prediction markets, these companies are increasingly becoming more mainstream. Just days before the lawsuit, Major League Baseball signed a multiyear partnership with Polymarket.

It’s notable to see a sports body take any kind of stand against these companies, even if it’s just about the NCAA’s precious trademark.