DraftKings, a fantasy sports platform, is looking to cash in on the Supreme Court’s ruling on the authorisation of sports gambling in North America – according to Jason Robins, CEO.
The company has been building its betting platform since July 2017 and expects it to be ready at the latest in September of this year.
DraftKings has a whole host of sports available for its users to get involved with; esports is one of the 10 fantasy sports available. According to Robins, esports is dwarfed in popularity by sports such as American Football, Basketball, and Baseball – but it’s growing rapidly.
Speaking to CNBC, Matt Kalish, CRO of DraftKings revealed that esports was actually the fasting-growing category DraftKings offered in 2017 with League of Legends entry rates rising 59% up from what it was in the previous year. He also noted that the numbers are on track to grow beyond that in 2018.
Kalish stated in the interview: “We are certainly aware of how fast the sport has grown. One of the reasons we believe esports could be much bigger on DraftKings is we haven’t really penetrated to the full breadth of games.”
One factor that should be considered when mentioning that esports is DraftKing’s least popular category is that the platform only accommodates for League of Legends, not any other title. Popular games, which are often considered ‘top tier’, such as Dota 2, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Hearthstone are all safe choices should the company branch out any time soon.
DraftKings, back in 2016, was set to merge with its main rival at the time, FanDuel. Ultimately the merger fell through because the Federal Trade Commission realised the combination of the two would control 90% of the market share. Since then, FanDuel has lost two co-founders and has quietened, which means DraftKings will likely be happy with itself that it’s managed to stay around until this point.
DraftKings previously had a number of partnered teams in esports, including the likes of compLexity Gaming, SK Gaming, Cloud9, Counter Logic Gaming, Team SoloMid, and Mousesports.
Esports Insider says: The new ruling certainly opens up the potential for betting and fantasy sports sites to operate with the industry, but nothing is clear just yet. We’re intrigued to see the result of DraftKing’s betting site and just how they capitalise on their own self-found growth of interest in esports.