A Cantor Fitzgerald affiliate has hauled DraftKings and FanDuel into federal court, accusing the sports-betting heavyweights of leaning on patented mobile-gambling technology tied to Howard Lutnick and his former Cantor Gaming unit. The twin lawsuits, filed Thursday in U.S. district courts, claim infringement of five patents and seek unspecified money damages. The filings reach across sportsbooks, casino products and fantasy apps, and the New Jersey case also ropes in additional defendants.
The plaintiff, Interactive Games LLC, a successor to Cantor Gaming, lodged one suit in New Jersey and another in Massachusetts. The New Jersey complaint names Betfair as a defendant, while the Massachusetts case zeroes in on DraftKings platforms, according to Reuters.
What the suits allege
Interactive Games says the patents cover systems that verify users’ identities and locations and detect tampering on smartphones, protections that sit at the core of mobile sports wagering and digital casino play. Two of the asserted patents are described in the complaints as directly tied to mobile-betting features, and the company is asking for jury trials and money damages.
Those technical details and claim descriptions were outlined in reporting by Bloomberg Law.
Lutnick’s role and ethics
The patents trace back to Cantor Gaming and list Howard Lutnick as a co-inventor. Lutnick founded Cantor Gaming in the mid-2000s and later moved into government service. He stepped down from his roles at Cantor after his Senate confirmation and swearing-in as U.S. commerce secretary in February 2025, and the Commerce Department has said he has complied with the divestiture and recusal terms of his ethics agreement, according to coverage by PBS NewsHour.
Patent battle has a long history
The new complaints land on top of years of patent fights tying Cantor-related entities to major betting platforms. DraftKings has cataloged earlier litigation and administrative reviews involving similar patents in its public SEC filings, and prior cases have led to inter partes reviews and mixed court rulings on which inventions are patent-eligible.
Those earlier suits and related maneuvering were detailed in contemporaneous coverage by Courthouse News.
What to watch next
DraftKings and FanDuel are expected to attack the patents’ validity and to move quickly for stays, inter partes reviews before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and motions to dismiss that argue the inventions are not eligible for patent protection or are covered by prior art.
Interactive Games listed five patents in the complaints and asked for unspecified damages. The company is represented by Michael Joffre, Chandrika Vira, Daniel Block, William Milliken and Richard Crudo of Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox, according to Reuters. The cases could run through parallel Patent Trial and Appeal Board proceedings and district-court skirmishes before any settlement or licensing talks surface.
