Yahoo and the NFL Players Association have reached a settlement over the use of players’ statistics, images and other information in Yahoo’s fantasy football games.
Yahoo sued the NFLPA last month arguing it should not have to pay additional royalties to use players’ data in its fantasy football games because the information is publicly available.
Nicol Addison
“We did reach a settlement and we are going to explore other opportunities with the NFL players union to work together,” Yahoo! Sports spokeswoman Nicol Addison said.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
“NFL Players and Yahoo! have reached a settlement. We continue to explore additional opportunities to work together,” Andrew Feffer, chief operating officer of NFL Players, said in a statement.
Yahoo originally filed its suit in federal court in June, alleging the NFLPA threatened to sue it if it did not pay royalties for using publicly available information.
“Yahoo, like other fantasy-football game providers, tracks, compiles and posts NLF player statistics,” Yahoo said in the suit.
The company wanted the court to find that the NFL “may not continue to extract money from Yahoo for the use of this publicly available information.”
Yahoo’s most recent licensing agreement expired in March and it notified the NFLPA that it would not renew the contract because of a court ruling that another fantasy football league provider did not need licenses.
Yahoo offers fantasy sports services for football, basketball, baseball, hockey, golf and auto racing.
