Daily fantasy sports operator Mondogoal announced that it would stop taking players as a consumer-facing platform and is pivoting to a business-to-business model.
The site launched in 2014 as a soccer-only DFS site. This year, Mondogoal had already started moving toward working outside of the B2C arena with gaming partners in Italy.
Mondogoal was among the first movers in the DFS space outside of North America, entering the regulated UK and Italian markets.
The news from Mondogoal
Visitors to the DFS site on Thursday saw this message:
As of December 1st, Mondogoal will no longer be open for cash play. We have decided to move forward as business to business operation. All remaining balances are segregated and available for withdrawal. Please continue to play our freeroll contests and look for us on your favorite betting platform. Contact [email protected] with any questions.
When it stopped taking customers on Thursday, Mondogoal also served some states in the US and Canada. Outside of North America, it served the UK, Ireland, Brazil and the Isle of Man. Users in Italy can still play on the Mondogoal platform via its gaming partners.
MondoGoal CEO and founder Shergul Arshad briefly touched on the changes on Twitter:
New direction for @Mondogoal is exclusively focusing on B2B. A path that makes far more sense in Europe where sports betting sites need DFS
— Shergul Arshad (@shergul) December 1, 2016
Some decisions were made for @MondoGoal. Payment processors. Backhanded dealings by prospective strategic investors. Proud of new path fwd
— Shergul Arshad (@shergul) December 1, 2016
The backstory/environment for Mondogoal and European DFS
Many believed — and still do — that European regulated markets offer a huge opportunity in fantasy sports. That has not yet materialized in a meaningful way. That’s despite the UK entrance of DFS giants DraftKings and FanDuel this year.
Of course, DFS has been a challenging environment in the US as well. Operators have run up against legal and regulatory problems, as well as difficulty competing against the “big two.”
Mondgoal had tried to make a splash by inking club deals with prominent clubs in England, Italy and Spain. But even that wasn’t enough, Arshad told Legal Sports Report.
“We had many impressive club partnerships but still found that the market was tough to stand up against sports betting sites where DFS actually needed to reside inside the sportsbooks,” Arshad said.
Mondogoal leaves behind several competitors in the European B2C space, including the aforementioned DraftKings and FanDuel, as well Oulala and PlayON.
A start-up called Global Daily Fantasy Sports is attempting to work with European gaming partners to provide DFS as a B2B platform, as well.
What’s next for Mondogoal
Mondogoal has already worked with a number of vendors in Italy, including deals with Lottomatica, SISAL and Microgame. (Mondogoal is still in the process of implementing the latter deal.)
The DFS operator is giving up on the B2C market. But Arshad is still bullish on the potential for the company.
“Much like esports and virtual sports, what we found was working with our live partner sites in Italy (Lottomatica and SISAL), we were able to offer a massive customer base DFS,” Arshad told LSR. “B2B is our path forward, and B2C creates conflict and added costs.”
“Our pivot away from B2C only means that Europe is a market we view best tackled in partnership with sports betting sites,” Arshad added.
Will that pivot be successful, though? By shedding the problems associated with customer acquisition for a B2C platform, it is at least giving itself a chance in the still unestablished European DFS market.
