Judge denies NCAA temporary restraining order blocking DraftKings from using ‘March Madness’

A federal judge on Thursday denied the NCAA’s bid for a temporary restraining order to prevent DraftKings from using “March Madness” and other language to promote sports bets on its service.

Judge Tanya Walton Pratt ruled that the NCAA did not show how DraftKings would cause irreparable harm by using terms such as “March Madness,” “Final Four,” “Elite Eight” and “Sweet Sixteen” to promote sports wagering on its betting app.

“With further discovery the NCAA may be able to show they are entitled to a preliminary or permanent injunction, and those claims remain pending,” Pratt wrote.

The NCAA accused DraftKings of using the trademarks without its permission. In a March 20 lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, the NCAA said it owns the trademarks and first adopted them in the 1980s.

The NCAA stated that DraftKings will cause irreparable harm to the association because “when consumers encounter the NCAA Basketball Marks in connection with DraftKings’ gambling services, they are likely to perceive an affiliation between the NCAA and the gambling industry, thereby distorting the NCAA’s identity and undermining decades of deliberate efforts to promote policies, programs, and public messaging designed to separate collegiate athletics from commercial gambling.”

In a court filing on Wednesday in response to the NCAA’s lawsuit, DraftKings argued that it has openly and publicly used “March Madness” and other terms to identify NCAA tournament events since 2021.

DraftKings also stated that “the parties have corresponded for years about trademark issues, but the NCAA never once complained about anything other than “March Mania” until a few weeks ago.”

During the NCAA tournament this year, Americans will legally wager $3.3 billion on the NCAA men’s and women’s Division I basketball tournaments, according to the American Gaming Association.

Sports betting is legal in a majority of states and in Washington, D.C., but is illegal in a dozen other states including California, Texas, Utah and Hawaii.

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