DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said the daily fantasy sports site will “probably” go live in the United Kingdom next month, in an interview with RotoGrinders.
U.K. plans become more solid
We already knew that DraftKings had applied for and received its gaming license in the U.K., and that it planned to launch at some point this year.
Robins gave more details about DraftKings going live on Dan Back’s podcast. He said that the product would be available in “mid to late October.” He also noted that DraftKings is working to “localize the experience” for the UK market, with obvious tweaks like users seeing pounds instead of dollars.
U.S. and U.K. player pools shared
The biggest news, however, was that DraftKings would be sharing liquidity with the U.S. market. From the podcast:
“And there absolutely will be pooled liquidity. Trying to build something from scratch country to country isn’t really interesting. When you can enter a market like the U.K. and come locked and loaded with millions and millions in prizes and millions of people playing, you’re going to be a lot more successful getting people to try and retain on the platform.
And ultimately it’s just like having a marketing channel, it’s just another place to build our player base faster than our competition.”
Previously, it wasn’t clear whether the UK product would be segregated from the U.S. player pool.
The news presumably means that all of the contests that DraftKings offers will be available to U.K. players upon launch.
Other plans for DraftKings internationally
In the interview, Robins also reiterated DraftKings’ global ambitions, noting that he wanted DraftKings to expand in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
He also noted that Australia was a “really, interesting market.”
Robins intimated that fantasy products for cricket and rugby were likely to launch next year.
