Draftkings the fantasy sports specialists
DraftKings are a daily fantasy sports provider that allows people to win money in fantasy sports contests. The concept is one of the fastest-growing in the sports betting industry and DraftKings are one of the leading brands to offer this service. People can enter daily and weekly fantasy sports contests to win cash prizes. The scoring system is based on individual performances as well as team performances.
Sign up to Draftkings here
Draftking history
The company was formed in 2012 by Jason Robins, Paul Liberman and Matthew Kalish. The first competition ran by DraftKings group was one-on-one baseball, which they debuted on the opening day of Major League Baseball in 2012. The idea proved to be successful, with outside funding now available to build their brand. In July 2012 a $1.4 million investment from Ryan Moore at Accomplice allowed them to begin operating outside of Liberman’s house. Following this were a number of further investments and business picked up serious momentum.
In April 2013 DraftKings received investment from Major League Baseball. In doing so they became the first US professional sports organization to invest in daily fantasy sport. The figure to this day is undisclosed, but it certainly opened many doors for DraftKings. With such backing came more investors, and the brand continued to grow in stature. July 2014 was another pivotal month for DraftKings as they looked to become the leading daily fantasy sport provider. Draftkings at the time were the second largest provider and wanted to obtain more of the market share. The group bought rival company DraftStreet who at the time were the third largest provider. This increased their user base by a further 50%.
Huge deals have since been struck with ESPN, the National Hockey League, Fox Sports and many more. August 2015 saw DraftKings spread their wings when they were granted a UK license. The process took longer than they would have liked but the UK app was launched on February the 5th, 2016.
How does daily fantasy sports work?
Daily fantasy sports work in the same way as normal fantasy sports, except they are run on shorter timescales generally, so rather than a season-long competition, you can run a daily competition. This helps keep users interested, and it also keeps fantasy sports competitive. Users often become disillusioned over longer periods of time, if they are not competing near the leaders in a competition, this is the joy of daily and weekly competitions.
Players compete against each other in fantasy leagues to attain a cash prize at the end. Users pick professional sportsmen/athletes in league/competition and build a team that they believe will perform well. The athletes will earn points based on their stats in actual sporting events, such as Baseball and football.
Of course with this come restrictions and rules. The first restriction you will encounter will be a salary cap. Each player is given a value based on reputation, form, and ability. A salary cap stops users picking the same players and teams. This adds another tactical element to the competition, as well as captivates the user imagination much more.
Another exciting feature of daily fantasy sports is the ability to view live contests. This enables participants to see how their team is performing in comparison to other users.
To participate in leagues there may be an entry fee required, this contributes towards the total cash pool available to competitors. It is always worth looking at the prize structure of a contest before entering. Any cash winnings will be credited to the player’s account, which can be used to enter further contests. This money is also withdrawable as cash.