Yesterday I took the plunge and put $100 into DraftKings to receive a $100 bonus.  Normally I’d take more advantage of a bonus but I’m trying to do a better job at losing my money at a slower bleed rate.

I’ve been playing Fanduel for a few years and this is the first year I’ll give DraftKings a shot.  I look at it as having accounts on Stars, Party, and Full Tilt.  If you’ve never heard of these companies, you don’t play fantasy sports.  Consumers have gravitated towards daily tournaments over season long leagues (which millions still do) because of the following reasons:

• Action – games begin and end on a daily basis.  Players crave action.
• More donks, less sharks – This is turning as more professionals are trying to make a living at daily leagues.  However, early on in these leagues, fish are everywhere ready to burn their bank account.
• It’s addictive and feels like the lottery.  One lucky break in a big tournament and you can cash for tens or hundreds of thousands, even a million bucks.

 

The Daily Fantasy Sports Landscape

Yahoo has entered the daily games which is a major step towards revenue.  A few years ago they got into allowing customers to play season long money leagues, now they are ready to allow daily leagues.  This is a smart decision but a bit too late as they are already trailing the leaders, Fanduel and Draft Kings.

Fanduel raised $275 million recently and has a post money valuation of $1.275 billion.  They had $57 million in revenue in 2014 with 1.1 million paid, active users.

Draftkings raised $126 million and is valued at more than $1 billion.  They had $30 million in revenue and 414,000 active users.  A huge benefit is that they struck a deal with ESPN that allows it to advertise exclusively through 2016.

 

Why I Deposited in Draft Kings

The British Open is this week and I want some action.  I’ve been following the golf closer this year than I have in the past and my theory is that hot golfers are the place to put your money.  Here is the team I assembled with the idea of swapping Louie into the mix.

I read an article in the Journal today about Jordan Spieth and how good of a putter he is.  Here are the stats:

• On average this year, when Spieth misses his first putt, the ball comes to rest just 23 inches from the hole.
• He has 3 putted only 1.82% of holes played this year.
• Relative to this competitors, his putting insides 20 feet is pedestrian, but from anywhere beyond that, he puts the ball in the hole nearly 14% of the time.
• McCormick, who works with elite golfers at various levels, has given Spieth tests that can quantify a player’s green reading aptitude and said Spieth scores in “the 99.9th percentile.”
• A tidbit at the US open that Spieth won on a Dustin Johnson miss.  They both had a putt of similar lengths for eagle, DJ missed his by 4 feet, Spieth 7 inches.  How to be a champ.

To go along with Spieth I added:

Danny Lee – Won the White Brier and was 1 back of Speith in the John Deere.  From New Zealand and a flier.

Lee Westwood – Shee says he’s the best golfer never to win a major.  Most likely will be swapped out.

Kevin Na – Not great win stats recently but making 16 of 19 cuts is admirable.

Rickie Fowler – Won the Scottish Open and has sick results in majors.

Kevin Kisner – 4 top 10 finishes in his last 7 tournaments.  Value city.