Players Involved in Video Game Settlements Seeing Payoff
SEATTLE (AP) — College athletes who sued the NCAA and video-game maker Electronic Arts over the use of their likenesses are seeing the payoff.
Attorneys at the Hagens Berman firm said Thursday they mailed out the first checks last week to roughly 15,000 of the 24,000 players eligible to receive money. The law firm said the median check was about $1,100, though some were written for as much as $7,600.
The money comes from two settlements reached in 2014 for a combined total of $60 million. The plaintiffs said the NCAA and EA illegally used college football and basketball players' names and likenesses in video games for years.
Hagens Berman also has extended a deadline for another 7,000 athletes to send in a W-9 to avoid paying taxes on the settlement.