Philly newspaper gambles on online gambling

Philly.com, the online unit of the Inquirer and sister newspaper the Philadelphia Daily News, has launched a legal online betting service called Instant Fantasy Games. The papers said last week that they are the first in their industry to make a foray into online betting, according to a report in Editor & Publisher, a newspaper trade journal.

FanDuel, a British wagering company helped Philly.com launch Instant Fantasy. Part fantasy league and part sports book, the service enables bettors to pick groups of players from professional baseball, hockey, or basketball leagues. It operates much like the fantasy leagues from Yahoo.com, CBSSports.com (parent company of ZDNet), and ESPN.

With Instant Fantasy, players pay $5 to $50 a game with the chance to win as much as $90, Greenbaum said.

For more on this story, read Newspaper gambles on online gambling on CNET News.