Daily fantasy sports site FanDuel signed a lease for a new office in the most expensive part of the Scottish city of Edinburgh, according to a report today.
What FanDuel is getting
The report from The Daily Record termed it as a ‘record deal,’ presumably in terms of leases for buildings that had not yet completed in the city.
The fantasy sports firm is taking the top three floors of the £50m Quartermile 4 building currently under construction. Covering more than 58,500sq ft, the deal is being billed as Edinburgh’s biggest pre-let in more than a decade.
FanDuel’s new offices will have capacity for about 500 staff. About 90 of its 300 global employees currently work in the Quartermile 1 office building.
The story said that FanDuel would be able to move in by April of next year. The publication also reported the lease is for 15 years, with an opt-out clause after 10 years.
Expansion continues for FanDuel
FanDuel just keeps getting bigger, which is not a shock to anyone who follows daily fantasy sports and the industry. A year ago, the company employed under 100 people; now its main office will be able to accommodate five times that amount.
It seems likely that its most recent acquisition — Kotikan, the developer of FanDuel’s mobile app — will be housed in the new office. The new digs for FanDuel also come on the heels of these moves by FanDuel:
- FanDuel recently announced its intent to open an office in Glasgow, also in Scotland, with plans to hire 200 staff in the tech-rich city.
- In May, FanDuel hired about 40 employees from the shuttered Zynga Sports 365 office in Orlando, Florida.
And those are in addition to existing offices in New York City and Los Angeles.
Manpower comes first
FanDuel recently closed a $275 million round of funding, and what we have seen — at least publicly — from the company before and after has been investments to solidify its future via manpower and its infrastructure.
Meanwhile, DraftKings has been investing heavily in advertising and television partnerships, with deals with ESPN and another Fox Sports, as a part of closing its $300 million round.
Even with the NFL season around the corner, FanDuel’s moves in the public eye have been pointed at the long-term, rather than the short term.
And with hundreds of millions in capital behind FanDuel and DraftKings, more announcements and moves are likely coming from both halves of the DFS duopoly.
