BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DraftKings, Inc., a leading provider of daily fantasy sports online with offerings across the board in fantasy baseball, fantasy football, fantasy basketball, and fantasy hockey, has closed a $7M Series A round of funding led by Atlas Venture. DraftKings plans to use the money to continue to perfect the customer experience and to broadly market its online and mobile offerings in short-term fantasy sports play. Featuring daily fantasy sports contests and same-day settlement, DraftKings makes playing fantasy faster and more exciting for both seasoned and casual players. Launched on April 28, 2012, the funding announcement comes right as the company is celebrating its first anniversary.
After only 12 months in market, early results for DraftKings have been impressive. In the past year, DraftKings has launched online fantasy contests in six different sports, become the #1 daily fantasy sports mobile app provider, and surpassed 1M users across its web and mobile platforms. For the 2013 fantasy baseball season alone, DraftKings will award over $20M in cash prizes, including its currently running “$5 Million Chase for the Crown” tournament.
Beyond cash prizes, DraftKings has also focused on rewarding its users with great sporting experiences, such as sending one winner to the Super Bowl last February.
“DraftKings’ average user spends over three hours per week on the site and plays 2.6 different sports. We were amazed to see how popular fantasy basketball became with our fantasy football customers, and we are now seeing similar conversion from fantasy basketball to fantasy baseball. Our products provide a true second screen complement to the sports viewing experience, and we see our highest levels of engagement during the actual games themselves,” said Jason Robins, CEO, DraftKings, Inc.
"We remain bullish on the daily fantasy sports market and believe DraftKings is poised to become the leader in this exciting segment of the sports market," said Ryan Moore, Partner, AtlasVenture.
For more information about DraftKings, Inc., please visit www.draftkings.com.
About DraftKings:
Launched in April 2012, Boston-based DraftKings is the online gaming destination where players engage in daily fantasy sports competitions across fantasy baseball, fantasy football, fantasy basketball, and fantasy hockey. DraftKings offers free and pay contests every day that pay cash prizes. All games are structured under salary cap format, and new contests are offered every day with instantaneous payouts. For more information, visit us at www.draftkings.com; like us at www.facebook.com/draftkings and follow us at www.twitter.com/draftkings.
