Two separate legal claims contend that the practice of “breaking” — opening sealed boxes of cards or memorabilia on livestreams while selling purchase “slots” to viewers — could amount to unlawful gambling or an unregulated lottery, according to ESPN.
Attorney Paul Lesko filed an arbitration demand this spring against live-shopping platform Whatnot on behalf of nearly 70 customers, ESPN reported. A separate lawsuit filed in July 2025 by another group of plaintiffs raises similar allegations against Whatnot and Fanatics Live. Lesko told ESPN the process was expected to begin by mid-July.
ESPN reported Whatnot declined to comment on the arbitration demand; in a March statement the company rejected the complaint’s characterization, said gambling is prohibited on its platform and noted that card breaks are a long-standing hobby format. A spokesperson for Fanatics also declined to comment, ESPN said.
Breaking typically involves a breaker opening a sealed product — most often a box of sports cards or sometimes signed apparel — on a livestream after selling slots to buyers. Slots can be allocated by team or player, or sold as randomized entries; the sealed product is usually not opened until all slots are purchased. Breaks are commonly hosted on platforms such as Whatnot, Fanatics Live, eBay Live, YouTube, Twitch and TikTok, and the breaker mails allocated items to buyers once pulls are revealed.
The practice predates the pandemic but surged in popularity during it, ESPN reported, and as sealed boxes have grown more expensive — sometimes costing thousands of dollars — slot prices have risen. Slot buyers are not guaranteed items of equal or greater value; in some cases a slot produces nothing of notable value, while occasional pulls can be extremely valuable. ESPN noted an example in which a $50 randomized slot in 2019 yielded a box that contained a unique Luka Dončić Nebula card, and a related Dončić parallel from the same set later fetched $780,000 at sale.
Legal experts, academics and hobby insiders spoke with ESPN to examine how gambling and lottery laws might apply to card breaking and what industry changes could follow if the challenges succeed. The lawsuits assert that certain randomized breaks operate as games of chance that lack regulation, according to ESPN.
