FanDuel Group
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FanDuel Group is an American gambling company that offers
sportsbook A sportsbook is a venue where a gambler can wager on various sports competitions, such as golf, football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, soccer, horse racing, greyhound racing, boxing, and mixed martial arts. The method of betting varies wit ...
,
daily fantasy sports Daily fantasy sports (DFS) are a subset of fantasy sport games. As with traditional fantasy sports games, players compete against others by building a team of professional athletes from a particular league or competition while remaining under ...
,
horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...
, and
online casino Online casinos, also known as virtual casinos or Internet casinos, are online versions of traditional ("brick and mortar") casinos. Online casinos enable gamblers to play and wager on casino games through the Internet. It is a prolific form of ...
services. The company operates sportsbooks in a number of states including
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
,
Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
and
West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...
, as well as an online horse race betting platform, and a daily fantasy sports service. The company was originally founded as a daily fantasy sports provider, and principally competed with
DraftKings DraftKings Inc. is an American gambling company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It offers sportsbook and daily fantasy sports (DFS) services. The company was originally launched in 2012 as a DFS provider, competing principally with the New Yor ...
. In May 2018, amid the widening legalization of
sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. Sports bettors place their wagers either legally, through a sportsbook or bookmaker (colloquially known as "bookies"), or illegally through priva ...
in the United States, FanDuel agreed to merge with the U.S. operations of Irish bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair (now
Flutter Entertainment Flutter Entertainment plc is an Irish-American multinational sports betting and gambling company. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and has a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange. It owns brands such as Betfair, FanDuel, Pad ...
) to form FanDuel Group. The acquisition sought to leverage the company's existing
brand recognition Brand awareness is the extent to which customers are able to recall or recognize a brand under different conditions. Brand awareness is one of the two key components of brand knowledge, as defined by the associative network memory model. It plays ...
and user base, with FanDuel becoming the company's main U.S. brand.


History

FanDuel was formed by
Nigel Eccles Nigel Eccles is a technology entrepreneur and the CEO of the online crypto casino BetHog. He is best known for being the co-founder and CEO of Hubdub and FanDuel. Career Eccles launched the online political prediction market Hubdub in 2007. He ...
, Lesley Eccles, Tom Griffiths, Rob Jones and Chris Stafford on July 21, 2009 in
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, Scotland, as a pivot from
Hubdub Hubdub was a web-based prediction market in which players used virtual money to trade predictions on future events. Over time users built up a portfolio of live predictions across their chosen categories of interest such as politics, sport, enter ...
, a news prediction site, after taking in $1.2 million in
venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...
funding from Pentech Ventures and
Scottish Enterprise Scottish Enterprise () is a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government which encourages economic development, Business, enterprise, innovation, international and investment agency, investment in business. The body covers the eastern ...
. In 2010, FanDuel held its first "FanDuel Fantasy Football Championship (FFFC)." The event consisted of ten users who won entry into the event by winning a qualifying league throughout the NFL season. First place was awarded $25,000 and the total prize pool was $40,000. On January 30, 2013, FanDuel announced that it had closed an $11 million Series C funding round. In September 2014, the company announced $70 million in Series D funding. In July 2015, FanDuel announced a Series E funding round of $275 million leading the company to be valued at over a billion dollars. In May 2015, FanDuel hired 38 of 42 employees that were laid off by Zynga 365 sports. Shortly after announcing the Series E fundraise, FanDuel acquired sports analytics company
numberFire numberFire is a privately held company that offers statistical analysis of data around sporting events and sports fans, targeting fantasy sports players, digital media, writers, teams, and leagues. The site boasts over 700,000 subscribers and pa ...
. Then in July 2015 FanDuel made its second acquisition in app developer Kotikan. Kotikan developed FanDuel's mobile app, and it was decided that they would be brought in house to help further develop mobile offerings. In September 2015, FanDuel acquired the esports focused DFS service AlphaDraft. In October 2015, ''The New York Times'' reported that an employee of DraftKings inadvertently released data before the start of the third week of NFL games and won $350,000 on the FanDuel website. DraftKings stated that the employees could not have used their information to make decisions about FanDuel lineups. FanDuel and DraftKings have since prohibited employees from playing in contests for money on rival websites. At the time of the incident the company released a statement that DraftKings' employees had won up to 0.3% of the $2 billion of prize money that FanDuel has given out. In a separate analysis it was shown that 91% of the player profits at DraftKings and FanDuel were won by just 1.3% of players on the website. On November 18, 2016, DraftKings and FanDuel announced an intent to merge. The combined company would serve over five million users. On June 19, 2017, the
Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...
(FTC) announced that it would seek a preliminary injunction to block the then proposed merger. The FTC stated that the proposed transaction would give the combined company 90% of the DFS market, which it considered to be a monopoly position. The merger was subsequently terminated.Schiffer, Alex
Federal judge orders temporary stop to DraftKings, FanDuel merger
''The Washington Post''. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
In September 2017, FanDuel and DraftKings each paid $1.3 million to settle with the
Massachusetts Attorney General The Massachusetts attorney general is an elected constitutionally defined executive officer of the Massachusetts government. The officeholder is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The officeholder ...
's office over allegations of unfair and deceptive practices by the companies prior to 2016. In November 2017, Nigel Eccles left the company. He was replaced as CEO by Matt King, who was previously CFO. Co-founder Tom Griffiths left the company shortly thereafter, replaced by
Nik Bonaddio Nik Bonaddio is an American Internet entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of the sports analytics site numberFire. In 2017, he was named Chief Product Officer at FanDuel, who acquired numberFire in September 2015. Career After graduation, Bonad ...
, formerly of
NumberFire numberFire is a privately held company that offers statistical analysis of data around sporting events and sports fans, targeting fantasy sports players, digital media, writers, teams, and leagues. The site boasts over 700,000 subscribers and pa ...
, as Head of Product.


Acquisition and expansion

In May 2018, Ireland-based
bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays out bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outco ...
Paddy Power Betfair (now Flutter Entertainment) announced its intent to acquire FanDuel. Paddy Power Betfair planned to contribute $158 million and merge its existing assets in the United States (which also include the
horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...
oriented cable networks
TVG Network FanDuel TV (formerly TVG) is an American sports betting-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by FanDuel Group, the U.S. subsidiary of Irish bookmaker Flutter Entertainment. It primarily airs live coverage of U.S. and i ...
and
TVG2 FanDuel Racing (formerly TVG2 and HRTV) is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network. It is part of the TVG Network and is owned by Paddy Power Betfair. Dedicated to horse racing, it broadcasts events from U.S. ...
) into FanDuel; Paddy Power Betfair holds a 61% controlling stake, with the option to increase its stake to 80% and 100% over time. The merger came in the wake of the
Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (), also known as PASPA or the Bradley Act, was a law, judicially overturned in 2018, that was meant to define the legal status of sports betting throughout the United States. This act ...
— which effectively outlawed
sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. Sports bettors place their wagers either legally, through a sportsbook or bookmaker (colloquially known as "bookies"), or illegally through priva ...
in almost all states in the United States — being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. FanDuel had been preparing to offer a sports wagering platform, while Paddy Power Betfair stated that the merger would make it "exceptionally well placed to target the prospective sport betting opportunity." FanDuel will serve as Paddy Power Betfair's primary operating brand in the United States. The acquisition was completed on July 11, 2018, with FanDuel and Paddy Power Betfair's US operations merged to form FanDuel Group. The FanDuel board valued FanDuel's stake in the merger at $465 million, which was significantly lower than FanDuel's internal valuation and resulted in a $120 million lawsuit in Scottish court by the company founders including Lesley Eccles, the former head of marketing for FanDuel. On February 25, 2020, over 100 former employees, company founders and early investors filed suit in New York against FanDuel's board for breach of fiduciary duty in allegedly undervaluing FanDuel to enrich themselves. A few days after the merger was completed, FanDuel opened its first branded
sportsbook A sportsbook is a venue where a gambler can wager on various sports competitions, such as golf, football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, soccer, horse racing, greyhound racing, boxing, and mixed martial arts. The method of betting varies wit ...
at the
Meadowlands Racetrack The Meadowlands Racetrack (currently referred to as Meadowlands Racing & Entertainment) is a horse racing track at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The track hosts both tho ...
in
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
. In March 2019, a FanDuel sportsbook opened at
Valley Forge Casino Resort Valley Forge Casino Resort is a casino in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. It was constructed on the existing site of the Valley Forge Convention Center and opened on March 31, 2012. It is owned and operated by Boyd Gaming. History Valley Forge Pla ...
in
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
. FanDuel also offers online sports betting in
Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania,
West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...
, and New York. In August 2018, FanDuel announced that it had partnered with Minute Media to create ''The Duel'', a new site for fantasy/sports betting information generated by fans. In February 2020, FanDuel reached an agreement with
Scientific Games Light & Wonder, Inc., formerly Scientific Games Corporation (SG), is an American corporation that provides gambling products and services. The company is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. Light & Wonder's gaming division provides products such ...
to serve as the technology partner for its current and future sports betting operations. In December 2020, Flutter Entertainment announced that it had increased its stake in FanDuel Group to 95% in a $4.1 billion cash-and-stock deal. In May 2021, FanDuel announced that CEO Matt King would be stepping down after four years with the company. In 2021, the company began to launch the online casino FanDuel Casino in selected states.Bennett Conlin,Todd Shriber, In August 2022, FanDuel announced the re-launch of
TVG Network FanDuel TV (formerly TVG) is an American sports betting-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by FanDuel Group, the U.S. subsidiary of Irish bookmaker Flutter Entertainment. It primarily airs live coverage of U.S. and i ...
—a co-owned
horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...
cable network—as FanDuel TV. The channel would continue to primarily carry live coverage of horse racing events, but would expand its coverage of mainstream sports from a gambling perspective. On October 16, 2024, Diamond Sports Group revealed in a bankruptcy court filing that it had reached an agreement with FanDuel Group to rebrand its the Bally Sports
regional sports networks A regional sports network (RSN) in the United States and Canada is a television channel that presents sports programming to a local media market or geographical region. Such channels often focus on one or a few teams who currently play in Major L ...
as
FanDuel Sports Network FanDuel Sports Network (formerly Bally Sports) is a group of regional sports networks in the United States owned by Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group). The networks carry regional broadcasts of sporting events from various ...
. The agreement contains an option for FanDuel to take a 5% equity stake in Diamond upon its exit from
chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...
bankruptcy protection; Diamond subsequently became known as Main Street Sports Group.


Partnerships

In November 2018, FanDuel announced a multi-year agreement to become a sports betting partner, and official daily fantasy sports partner, of the
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
. The company announced a separate team sponsorship with the NHL's
New Jersey Devils The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The club w ...
the same day, which includes in-arena sponsorship for FanDuel Sportsbook, and brand integration via team platforms. FanDuel also partnered with The Volume in 2022.


Awards and recognition


2016

* Webby Awards: Judges Selection: Best Sports App (Handheld Device)


2015

*
Webby Award The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...
s: Judges Selection: Best Sports App (Handheld Device) * Webby Awards: People's Choice Award: Best Mobile Sports App


References


External links

*

{{Fantasy sports 2009 establishments in New York City 2018 mergers and acquisitions Browser-based game websites Bookmakers Daily fantasy sports Fantasy sports websites Internet properties established in 2009 Sports betting