DraftKings, one of the top brands in Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) recently launched operations in the United Kingdom (UK) on February 5 after it received a gambling license from UK’s gaming commission.
With six million players in U.S and pay-outs totaling more than a billion dollars, DraftKings is one of world’s top two biggest daily fantasy sites with the other being FanDuel, who is currently awaiting approval to enter the UK market.
Fantasy sports have also gained popularity in the UK but in general contests are largely played over a few months and pay-outs usually take place at the end of the season. This is set to change as DraftKings follows a different model when it comes to its portfolio of daily fantasy sports games. DraftKings runs daily contests and payouts also occur on a regular basis, which will make it a lot more exciting for DFS gamers in the UK. The new DraftKings games will allow fans to compete not just in UK’s popular sport of football but also across 11 global sports including the NBA, NFL and golf.
DraftKings has confirmed that it will partner with some of the top football teams in the English Premier League. The company will collaborate with Arsenal, Watford and Liverpool for advertising its services and will make plans for a full scale rollout in August before the start of the 2016/7 Premier League season.
Although DraftKings already offers English Premier League and Champions League games on its US platform and has amassed over 200,000 players, their offering has changed a little as a result of the UK launch. Aiming to engage the player for longer periods of time, the scoring system on the platform has been modified with this objective in mind. Based on inputs from players the system now has 19 play events as opposed to only three which is used earlier.
In a statement, Jeffrey Haas DraftKings chief international officer said,
You’re not betting on the individual results of a club, what you’re doing is you’re using your statistical skills to understand and analyse the likelihood of individual players’ across multiple teams and multiple games and their likelihood to succeed in those games
Launched in 2012 and currently valued at $1 billion, DraftKings has become a phenomenal success story within a short span of time. However, recent questions have been raised on its legitimacy, with many claiming that DFS is gambling. Six states in U.S have already banned DraftKings from operating and a number of other states are investigating its legality under current gambling laws, potentially leading to its prohibition if declared as gambling.
