Seattle sports fans waiting for the NHL to drop the first puck in the city, or for the NBA to get wise and return, have another professional team to pay attention to as The Crown League, the first professional fantasy sports league, unveiled the Seattle Emerald Haze as its latest franchise. The league’s opening season begins in September, and with team shares provided to the public, the hook is that everyday fans will get to experience what it’s like to invest in a pro sports team. “Nearly 60 million people in North America participated in fantasy sports last year, and fantasy… Read More
FanDuel and DraftKings have run into a roadblock for their proposed merger. The FTC announced today that it will, along with attorney general offices from California and District of Columbia, seek legal action to block the merger of the two daily fantasy sports giants. The deal would “control more than 90 percent of the U.S. market for paid daily fantasy sports contests,” the FTC noted. The merger was first announced this past November. “This merger would deprive customers of the substantial benefits of direct competition between DraftKings and FanDuel,” Tad Lipsky, acting director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said… Read More
SAN FRANCISCO — DraftKings has been on a roller coaster over the past few years, to say the least. But co-founder and CEO Jason Robins spoke on stage today at TechCrunch Disrupt and made it clear that the company has righted its ship, despite some reports noting the “implosion of the daily fantasy industry.” DraftKings, founded in 2011, experienced huge growth after raising a $300 million venture round in July 2015. Its TV advertisements dominated the sports media world before and during the 2015-16 NFL season, promising massive cash prizes to users who could best predict how well professional athletes would perform on a given day. But the Boston-based… Read More
