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Earlier this week, the U.S. Federal Trade
Commission, California and the District of Columbia said they
would seek to stop the merger because the combined company would
control more than 90 percent of the U.S. market for paid daily
fantasy sports contests.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. District Court of the
District of Columbia on Tuesday approved a temporary restraining
order agreed by the FTC and the two companies.
The companies announced the deal in November 2016 as a merger of
equals that would cut their legal bills.
FanDuel had no comment on the filing but reiterated its comment
from earlier in the week that the companies were considering
legal options regarding the FTC complaint.
The companies have a history of aggressive advertising as they
battled for market share. They cut ad spending significantly in
2016 and said the combined company could again expand spending
on advertising and customer acquisition.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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