Editor’s Note: This is part one in a series on which daily fantasy sports site is No. 3 in the market right now.
Part 2 on FantasyAces
There is a clear No. 1 and No. 2 in the daily fantasy sports industry right now, with FanDuel and DraftKings. But who is No. 3? The answer is not that simple.
FD, DK, and everyone else
In the DFS industry, there’s a tendency to focus on the two big dogs: FanDuel and DraftKings. And why not? The former is nearing a round of fundraising that would value the company at $1.5 billion. Meanwhile, DraftKings is close to getting funding from ESPN/Disney for a valuation of $900 million.
That leaves a steep drop-off to the rest of the DFS industry, and sites are generally jockeying for marketshare behind the big two.
But as the industry grows, there’s still room for the other companies trying to compete in the space. That point is illustrated by recent news — and new entries — in the DFS space. This week, Yahoo announced its intention to roll out a DFS product before the NFL season. Last month, Amaya Gaming/PokerStars did the same.
The new entries could also mean that it is more important than ever for sites to try to separate themselves from the pack, before the possibility of a “Big Four” gobbling up the vast majority of the market. And that doesn’t even account for the possibility of CBS Sports, a big seasonlong fantasy provider like Yahoo, getting into DFS.
Who are the players?
DraftDay, Victiv and FantasyAces are the leaders behind FanDuel and DraftKings, according to Adam Krejcik, Managing Director of Digital & Interactive Gaming at Eilers Research, who tracks trends in the DFS space.
“The delta between who is the No. 3 site in the industry is quite small right now and truthfully being labeled that doesn’t quite matter. We believe DraftDay, Fantasy Aces, and Victiv can all make a claim to being No. 3. What’s important though is the underlying growth trajectory. FA has been a market share gainer, Victiv has been solid from our perspective; however, DraftDay has been struggling a bit as of late. So to me watching the underlying growth of these companies and how well they execute in the next few months is far more important than being labeled the No. 3 provider.”
All three have a case, for different reasons:
- Victiv, a relatively new site launched just last year, is generally offering the largest guaranteed daily contests this side of FanDuel and DraftKings. It recently launched Major League Baseball contests and it has been doing well in fantasy golf, even offering a $75,000 guaranteed contest based on the U.S. Open in June.
- DraftDay is the most established DFS platform on the market (it was founded in 2011 before being sold in 2014). And the site remains an innovator, offering a variety of contests you can’t find elsewhere.
- FantasyAces made a huge push in the past year and is doing particularly well with its “live finals,” where players qualify online to play in person for a huge prize pool. Earlier this month FA’s live NBA final handed out $100,000. And the $250,000 live World Baseball Championship is set for this season.
So who is No. 3?
That’s certainly difficult to say, definitively. But Legal Sports Report talked to the CEOs of all three DFS sites, in an attempt to see where each stands in the current market. We’ll be running stories in coming days focusing on each of the sites.
Photo by BineHerzog used under license CC BY-SA 2.0.
