What is FanDuel?
PDFS September 12, 2015
Fanduel was the original top dog in Daily Fantasy Sports starting way back in 2009. Their mission was “to transform the world of fantasy sports with daily games” and boy did they ever. DFS is now one of the biggest industries in North America and a lot of its success is due to Fanduel.com. The daily fantasy sports industry has now been flooded with other players, but Fanduel still remains at the very top amongst the elite DFS sites and continues to be looked upon as a leader in the space. There are over 20,000 fantasy leagues open to be played every day on Fanduel and in 2015 they will pay out $2 Billion in total prize money. If that wasn’t enough in 2015 one lucky player will win $3M as a top prize in their Fantasy Football Championship.
Visit our partner site Fanduel.com
*Since the original posting of this article FanDuel and their top competitor DraftKings announced plans to merge sometime in 2017.
The Fanduel Team
Co-Founders
- Nigel Eccles
- Lesley Eccles
- Tom Griffiths
- Rob Jones
- Chris Stafford
CEO
According to their website the multi-billion dollar company was formed in a backyard Texas brainstorming session between the co-founders. They decided to focus their efforts on Fantasy Sports and decided the industry was in need of a shakeup. CEO Nigel Eccles was the brainchild behind Fanduel when on a 10hr flight he decided to pour over the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and noticed an exemption for fantasy sports as it was considered a game of skill. He was amazed that nobody had taken advantage of this exemption yet and in 2009 launched Fanduel.com, a business now worth in the billions. Kinda makes you regret all those long flight naps doesn’t it? It really is an amazing accomplishment for a guy who was born far away from the North American sports scene being born on a small farm in Northern Ireland.
Fanduel now has offices in 5 major cities across 2 continents and boasts a staff of over 300 people.
Fanduel Capital Investments
In 2015, Fanduel has raised a total of $363M to date. Some of their biggest investment partners include Comcast, NBC Sports, Time Warner and Google. Here is all the funding Fanduel has been able to raise so far with investors listed:
Series A – January 2009
- $1.2 Million
- Pentech Ventures, Scottish Investment Bank
Seed – July 2011
- Amount Undisclosed
- Fabrice Grinda
Series B – September 2011
- $4 Million
- Piton Capital, Pentech Ventures
Series C – January 2013
- $11 Million
- Bullpen Capital, Comcast Ventures, Pentech Ventures, Piton Capital, Scottish Investment Bank
Series D – September 2014
- $70 Million
- Shamrock Capital Advisors, Bullpen Capital, Comcast Ventures, Karlani Capital, KKR, NBC Sports, Pentech, Scottish Investment Bank
Series E – July 2015
- $275 Million
- KKR, Bullpen Capital, Comcast Ventures, Google Capital, NBC Sports, Pentech, Piton Capital, Shamrock Capital, Time Warner
Fanduel Partners and Sponsorship
Fanduel has been able to secure many impressive partnerships in the sporting world, but their biggest one to date has to be with the NBA. The big unknown for all DFS sites is whether someone will be able to score an exclusive deal with the NFL which would be a game changer for any site. Fanduel so far has been able to score deals with individual teams but have yet to land the NFL which would be a big blow to their rival competitors.
Fanduel and the NBA
In November of 2014, Fanduel was able to lock down their biggest sports partnership yet when they entered a multi-year deal with the National Basketball Association. Terms of the deal were undisclosed but according to multiple sources the NBA got an equity share of Fanduel. In return, Fanduel received tons of advertising from the NBA including showcasing FD as the NBA’s “Official One-Day Fantasy Basketball Game.”
NBA Teams Partnered with Fanduel.com
- Atlanta Hawks
- Brooklyn Nets
- Charlotte Hornets
- Chicago Bulls
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Dallas Mavericks
- Detroit Pistons
- Indiana Pacers
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Memphis Grizzlies
- Miami Heat
- Milwaukee Bucks
- Orlando Magic
- Utah Jazz
NFL Teams Partnered with Fanduel
Like we mentioned earlier Fanduel has yet to secure an official deal with National Football league. They have, however, landed many exclusive deals with individual teams. They are as follows:
- Baltimore Ravens
- Buffalo Bills
- Chicago Bears
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Cleveland Browns
- Detroit Lions
- Green Bay Packers
- Houston Texans
- Indianapolis Colts
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- New York Jets
- Philadelphia Eagles
- San Diego Chargers
- St. Louis Rams
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Washington Redskins
Other Fanduel Partners
Besides sports leagues and teams Fanduel has also partnered with two well-known media companies:
- Sportradar – a sports data driven company, Fanduel receives their official NFL stats from them
- SB Nation – a huge sports media blog consisting of over 300 sites
Fanduel IPO
At the time of this writing, Fanduel is still not a public company but rumors have it that they will someday hit “the market” in the near future. With Fanduel reaching Unicorn status with a $1 Billion valuation in July 2015 and it only seems natural that the next step may be an Initial Public Offering. In a recent segment on CNBC in September of 2015 CEO Nigel Eccles said they are still weighing all their financial options and will look closer at the next step in January of 2016.
Fanduel by the Numbers
- Over 1 Million Paid Active Users
- $2 Billion to Paid out in 2015
- Projected $3 Billion in 2016
- $57.3 Million Revenue in 2014
- $621.7 Million in Player Entry Fees in 2014
Check out Fanduel for yourself to see what the sports world has been talking about