DraftKings and FanDuel abandon dream sports merger

13 July 2017

Fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel have deserted a plan to merge, less than a month after US competitors regulators sought to obstruct the deal.

The deal would have created a company with control over 90% of the marketplace for paid, day-to-day dream sports contests, federal government authorities stated.

The companies said the bet9ja's welcome offer would result in greater financial investment, providing advantages for consumers.

They said they would now aim to grow individually.

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

Fantasy sport firm FanDuel warns of risk from US policies

The two companies specialise in a subset of dream sports, in which fans choose gamers to produce teams for single games, instead of the season, with the possible to win prize money based on the result.

In November, they stated they had actually accepted merge. Terms were not disclosed.

At the time, they stated the deal would enable them to integrate forces on regulative issues raised by US regulators, who had actually compared the industry to prohibited gaming and banned the sites in some states.

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

"There is still huge, untapped market opportunity for FanDuel, and we will continue to perform our technique to grow our organization and additional expand the yohaig code fantasy sports market," he stated in a declaration.

Draft Kings chief executive Jason Robbins also stated terminating the merger would permit the firm to "singularly focus" on growth, including worldwide.

In 2015 there were an approximated 57 million fantasy sports players in the US alone.