DraftKings and FanDuel desert fantasy sports merger

13 July 2017

Fantasy sports websites DraftKings and FanDuel have actually deserted a strategy to combine, less than a month after US competition regulators looked for to obstruct the offer.

The offer would have created a business with control over 90% of the marketplace for paid, daily dream sports contests, federal government officials stated.

The firms stated the deal would cause higher financial investment, offering advantages for customers.

They stated they would now want to grow individually.

FanDuel began in Scotland in 2009 and is now based in New york city. It is number 2 in the yohaig code US for paid daily fantasy sports contests behind DraftKings, which started in Boston in 2012.

Fantasy sport firm FanDuel alerts of hazard from US policies

The two firms specialise in a subset of fantasy sports, in which fans choose gamers to develop groups for single games, instead of the season, with the possible to win money prizes based on the outcome.

In November, they said they had actually accepted combine. Terms were not divulged.

At the time, they said the offer would permit them to combine forces on regulatory issues raised by US regulators, who had compared the market to prohibited betting and banned the sites in some states.

Nigel Eccles, head of FanDuel, stated it made sense to move forward separately.

"There is still enormous, untapped market opportunity for FanDuel, and we will continue to perform our strategy to grow our business and additional broaden the fantasy sports market," he said in a declaration.

Draft Kings president Jason Robbins also stated terminating the merger would allow the firm to "singularly focus" on development, including worldwide.

Last year there were an approximated 57 million fantasy sports gamers in the US alone.