Editor’s Note: This is part three in a series on which daily fantasy sports site is No. 3 in the market right now.
Part 1: An overview of the leading competitors behind FanDuel and DraftKings.
Part 2: A closer look at FantasyAces.
If you look at the most obvious metric to the average observer in daily fantasy sports — guaranteed prize pools — it might seem pretty cut and dried who is No. 3 in DFS. Victiv is the site offering the biggest prize pools day in and day out — on a site not named FanDuel or DraftKings.
But Victiv also has a lot going for it, beyond big guarantees. Here’s a look at how Victiv made a name for itself in less than a year of operation, and where it’s headed.
From the beginning…
Victiv, it’s hard to believe, has only been around about nine months. The DFS site based in Austin, Texas, launched last September, and it quickly made a name for itself in the daily fantasy space.
From almost the start, Victiv attracted attention by offering $18,000 guaranteed prize pools for NFL contests. In short order that fall, the site rolled out on NHL and NBA contests. Payouts for the NFL season quickly reached half a million dollars per week.
According to CEO Matthew Primeaux, based on a measure of prize pools paid per week, Victiv has “been the consistent No. 3 in the space across all sports since NFL Week 15.”
The site’s arrival on the DFS scene was clearly obvious with its $300,000 Victiv Bowl Championship in December — the largest contest held by a site other than FanDuel or DraftKings — followed by a $150,000 NBA Championship.
The site then rolled out a successful golf product — a $30,000 contest for The Masters and a $75,000 contest slated for the U.S. Open in June — as well as MLB contests this spring.
So how did all that happen?
The trajectory of Victiv has trended steeply upwards, even by the lofty standards set by the DFS industry in recent years.
According to a site where Victiv seeks investment funding, it has experienced “16% – 22% compounding weekly growth across all major metrics.”
How? In a nutshell, it’s perhaps because Victiv didn’t follow the same exact blueprint as every other site in the DFS space. A user can tell almost from the get-go upon launching the site that it’s different — a clean, simple interface with few bells and whistles. Primeaux said that he and his team “find the current game and platforms on the market complex.”
“Our approach at Victiv.com is slightly different,” Primeaux said. “Our goal has always been to invest in and build the best, most engaging daily fantasy sports experience possible. We want all users, and especially those that are new to daily fantasy sports, to enjoy the games they’re watching and experience the thrill of winning.”
So how does Victiv go about doing that? By creating a platform that users seem to love; the site often gets great reviews from DFS content sites and users. The result so far has been a DFS site that users keep coming back to.
“Our UI/UX design motto is ‘allow me to think, but don’t make me think,’ ” Primeaux said. “We want to provide all of the functionality (and more) that a user expects without it being overwhelming and confusing.”
Amazingly, Victiv has grown pretty much organically, eschewing massive amounts of marketing and advertising — and the cost associated with it — that nearly everyone else in the space commits to.
“We attribute much of our growth to the product our team has built and our understanding of the operations of similar real gaming markets,” Primeaux said. “We spend virtually no capital in traditional or digital marketing channels right now. The bulk of our $3mm funding has been allocated to finding the best talent, building unrivaled technology, and providing premier value to our players.”
What’s next?
According to Primeaux, the goal for Victiv will be to pay out $2.5 million per week by the end of the upcoming NFL season.
“We will be disappointed if in 18 months’ time we haven’t paid at least $100 million in winnings,” Primeaux added.
Past the raw numbers, Primeaux listed a few other goals for his site:
- Dialing in the product. “We want to continue to improve our product through a concentration on simplification, mobile, second-screen experiences, and new game types.”
- Marketing aggressively. “Our platform, player liquidity pool, and CRM systems are at a point where we’re excited to see how starting to market our product will drive even faster growth.”
Primeaux is confident in the foundation Victiv has built in the past year. And, with the growth and success the site has experienced so far, there’s little reason to doubt him.
“As this market matures, our aim is to simplify, continue to remove the current burdens, and provide a better, more engaging experience,” Primeaux said. “Our current development pipeline is chalk full of things this space has yet to see.”
Photo by Vinoth Chandar used under license CC BY 2.0.
