Daily fantasy sports industry giants DraftKings and FanDuel were granted temporary emergency stay in New York and to continue their business operations in the state.

According to an article of The USA Today, after New York Supreme Court Justice Manuel Mendez ordered them shut down, the two companies immediately made a legal appeal and sought an emergency temporary stay. The motion was granted by a New York appellate judge, Friday afternoon.

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The recent appeals court's ruling has given permission for the two companies to operate in New York until at least the first week of January next year.

According to an ESPN report, Friday's ruling does not nullify the legal interpretation made by Mendez that FanDuel and DraftKings were operating within the state illegally. The Supreme Court justice sided with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's arguments that the two DFS companies are operating illegal gambling sites based on how New York law defines gambling.

DraftKings and FanDuel will still be in a legal battle with the granted reprieve. A panel of New York appellate judges then will rule if the stay should be lifted or remain in effect until their appeal is heard on the preliminary injunction issued initially by Justice Mendez.

FanDuel and DraftKings lawyers argued that their clients were taking in entry fees and not wagers and they claim that both companies could not have violated gambling statutes. The main support for their contention was a New Jersey case -- an unpublished decision in Humphrey v. Viacom (2007) -- that Mendez disregarded, saying that what they took in were in fact bets under New York law.

Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League own equity in the Boston-based DraftKings while NBA owns equity in FanDuel.

An estimated 600,000 New Yorkers play daily fantasy on DraftKings and FanDuel, having put up more than $200 million in entry fees combined in 2015.

TagsDraftKings, FanDuel, Daily Fantasy Sports, nhl, Temporary Emergency Stay, mlb