FanDuel, also known as FanDuel.com, was founded in 2009 by Hubdub, a prediction market game company. FanDuel is a daily fantasy sports company where players can wager on daily fantasy sports competitions as opposed to the traditional weekly competitions.
Daily fantasy sports is possible legally due to a 2006 law which banned internet gambling. This law included an exclusion for “skill based games” which allows sites such as FanDuel and DraftKings to operate.
FanDuel received $1.2 million in seed investment from Pentech Ventures and Scottish Enterprise.
In early 2013, the company raised $11 million in funding in a Series C round. The round was led by Comcast Ventures, Piton Capital, Pentech Ventures, Bullpen Capital and Richard Koch.
In September 2014, the company raised an additional $70 million in Series D funding from Shamrock Capital Advisors, NBC Sports Ventures and KKR.
In November 2014, the company announced a partnership with the NBA. As part of the agreement, the NBA received an equity stake in the company in exchange for promoting them as their “Official One Day Fantasy Basketball Game”.
In July 2015, the company raised another $275 million in a Series E round which valued the company at over $1 billion dollars. The company used part of these funds to acquire analytics company numberFire.
On October 4, 2015, DraftKings employee Ethan Haskell won $350,000 on FanDuel. This came 1 week after Haskell had leaked sensitive information that would give players a competitive advantage. The FBI and US DOJ both open cases while DraftKings and FanDuel temporarily ban employees from wagering. FanDuel hires a DC lobbying firm on Oct 14th.
On October 15, 2015, Nevada bans all daily fantasy sports sites from being used by Nevada residents.
Today, FanDuel has over 1 million active users and will pay out over $2 billion to players in 2015. The company has raised $363 million in total funding and has partnered with 16 NFL and 14 NBA teams.
