NCAA Sues DraftKings, Should Sportsbooks Be Allowed to Use Trademarks?

DraftKings has come under fire from the NCAA, accusing the sportsbook of using trademarks such as March Madness, Final Four or Elite Eight in its promotional content. The NCAA argues that it has no affiliation or endorsement of the sportsbook operator, and these promotional ties link betting to the competition, which raises gambling exposure concerns and could damage the integrity of March Madness. The main objective is to get DraftKings, and all other US sportsbooks for that matter, to drop the March Madness related terminology.

And DraftKings is really just the start of it, as many other books in the US refer to March Madness, and a court win against DraftKings could set a legal precedent for the others. However, DraftKings has pushed back, stating that these terms are necessary to provide clarity and that they are a cultural term used in sports and betting nomenclature.

You couldn’t say bet on the prestigious annual award ceremony held in the Dolby Theatre (Oscars), or explore betting markets for the season-ending football game that is held in early February (Super Bowl). So why would sportsbooks have to tiptoe around March Madness – and if the NCAA wins here, what precedent will that hold for the argument of freedom of speech vs trademark infringement?

NCAA DraftKings Lawsuit

The National Collegiate Athletic Association took the matter to a federal court in Indianapolis, requesting a temporary restraining order to stop DraftKings from using the trademarks. In a statement, the NCAA called out DraftKings directly, saying that its use of the trademarks is contrary to the association’s deeply held institutional values. The NCAA reinforced its stance to uphold a strict prohibition on advertising and sponsorships associated with betting, to help defend the integrity of the institution and the student-athletes’ well-being.

The trademarks in question include:

• March Madness®
• Final Four®
• Elite Eight®
• Sweet Sixteen®

Officially, these are owned by the NCAA and its licensing bodies, and marketing agencies or organizations that want to use them need authorization from the NCAA. The whole case came up when DraftKings launched a welcome offer for new customers, including standard bonus bets and a boost offer on futures tournament wagers relating to March Madness.

DraftKings Defense

That sports betting marketing promotion has since been recalled, and DraftKings is now on the defense. In their argument, they claim the terms fall under descriptive, or Nominative Fair Use. That is, they use the term March Madness to refer to the specific tournament, something that is needed for identification. Instead of circling around the term and potentially using a misleading description, they need to identify March Madness because this is what the betting products relate to.

This comes at a time when March Madness is at its peak, and the betting volume on the 2026 tournament is slated to exceed $3.3 billion – a record for college basketball. To be clear here, DraftKings is fully within its rights to provide products and bets on March Madness. It is just the ads and media that the NCAA is claiming make DraftKings look like it is endorsed by the organization, or worse, that the NCAA has ties to gambling.

Controversies of Betting on College Sports

Betting on college sports has been an extremely contentious subject since the first states legalized sports betting. The NCAA has quite rightly argued that bets on college sports can be damaging to the athletes, expose gambling products to younger audiences, and even hurt the integrity of the sports. The student athletes can certainly feel the impact of the bets, even if they don’t have their own money on the line. It adds pressure to perform, and what’s more, these athletes may have people in their immediate circles who may have bets running on their performance – barring any in-state betting restrictions.

March Madness, as a college sport, does have restrictions in select states, where you cannot place props bets on player performances or bet on in-state college teams. But even when this is the case, there are alternate betting products such as DFS Pick’Em games, social betting pools, March Madness brackets, peer to peer betting exchanges and even sports-related prediction markets which can circumvent these laws. This informal betting culture on the college sport means it is harder to regulate and curb the exposure – you can even have fellow students betting on their athlete class mates.

The hype around betting on March Madness is not lost to younger audiences, and America has known problems with underage gamblers. But what’s probably more tangible, from a regulator’s aspect, is the actual integrity of the sports.

Sport Integrity Calls

For there have been direct cases of insider trading, match fixing, and even bribery – ranging from the athletes to the coaches, affiliated staff and even referees. To combat this, the NCAA rolled out a new monitoring system called ProhiBet in 2026. Using cross referencing anonymous data algorithms, they are trying to curb the potential violations by anyone involved. It is designed to preserve the integrity of NCAA competitions, from the college football playoffs to March Madness and everything in between.

ProhiBet, developed by Integrity Compliance 360, is going to severely limit the possibility of affiliated individuals placing bets on college events. Though it is not faultproof. Because platforms that fall in the gray area, such as prediction markets and DFS apps – or even international/offshore gambling sites with anonymous crypto payments and fewer KYC requirements, are still beyond the reach of ProhiBet.

Should Sportsbooks Have Access to Trademarks?

Circling all the way back to the issue at hand, DraftKings is under fire because of its use of March Madness and other trademarks. They are not the only sportsbook in America that uses these terms, but making an example of a company as big as DraftKings would have far more serious implications than targeting a smaller or newer betting site.

The case defending DraftKings is going to lean heavily on nominative fair use. Sure, these trademarks are owned by the NCAA, but DraftKings should have the right to use the names of the competitions to define the conditions for its betting products. You can’t simply brand an odds boost or betting bonus for the “college basketball championship in March”, or “the NCAA Tournament”. We know what they are talking about, but the language is still not definitive and can be misleading.

They must be able to describe the tournament that the betting products are tied to. But, this must be negotiated in a way that they are not using the branding that implies affiliation.

What Happens Next

This is an ongoing case, filed on March 21, and no formal hearing date has been set by the Indiana federal court. The NCAA wants an emergency temporary restraining order, to get DraftKings to drop the products immediately. And while DraftKings has done just that, rescinding the controversial NCAA Tournament winner betting boost, the NCAA is not going to settle for a brief apology.

They want to have a definitive ruling to bar DraftKings, and others, from using trademarked terms in any of their promotional content. Should the NCAA win the case, it wil redefine how these sportsbook operators refer to March Madness in their ads. They will still provide betting boosts, bonuses, and other perks relating to the contest, but we may see fewer of these marketed outside the betting sites that offer them.

But if DraftKings can fight its case, it will set a precedent for other sportsbooks. They can continue to use the trademarks to refer to widely recognized events, and it obliterates any case that the likes of the Olympics, Super Bowl, and other trademarks have against being used in betting ads.