BILLION DOLLAR FANTASY

Between 2012 to 2015, the companies Fanduel and Draftkings were waging a war for dominance in what was then the niche of daily fantasy sports in the United States.

It was an industry war that likely went unnoticed by the broader public. Unless you happened to be tuned into fantasy sports leagues, or were the type who kept tabs on the latest goings-on in professional sports in general, the cutthroat competition between the two companies probably only registered as a faint memory of logos and ads that bombarded billboards and airwaves at the time. But from the inside-looking-out the stakes were huge, with the two startups competing against each other tooth and nail for dominance in a multi-billion dollar space while at the same time cooperating with each other to combat legislation that threatened to shut down the industry itself.

All this is the subject the book Billion Dollar Fantasy: The High-Stakes Game between Fanduel and Draftkings that Upended Sports in America from sports journalist Albert Chen. 

To a certain extent, Chen’s reportage on the subject is akin to many other books about the struggles of startups. On one corner was Fanduel, the company founded by the husband and wife team of Nigel and Lesley Eccles and their associates, which bootstrapped itself to become the leading daily fantasy sports site in the United States (with the help of some venture funding along the way). In another corner was DraftKings, a passion project of Jason Robins, Matthew Kalish, and Paul Lieberman, that would prove itself a force to be reckoned with through a series of savvy strategic moves like securing an investment from Major League Baseball as well as acquiring a competitor—what was then the second-largest daily fantasy site in operation—in order to gain scale.

What drove both companies was the realization by its founders that a legal loophole in the United States created a gray area that effectively meant online fantasy sports betting could be very lucrative (as opposed to online gambling, which was heavily regulated to the point of practically being disallowed). Fanduel and Draftkings would exploit that loophole, going so far as to publicly adopt the position that, no, daily fantasy sports wasn’t online gambling—even though it really was—along the way spending millions in what can only be described as an arms race of marketing and customer acquisition against one another.

Ultimately, it wasn’t the one-upsmanship between the two that threatened their continued existence but the fact that neither had invested enough resources to put themselves on more solid legal footing. The breaking point in this regard was when it came to light that some of their employees may also have been playing daily fantasy sports on their respective platforms, implying that the games were rigged in their favor if they had inside information. Once this came to light, Fanduel and Draftkings would have no choice but to mount a rearguard action on both the PR and regulatory fronts after intense public scrutiny and criticism. While they would eventually weather the storm after a fashion, it was an ordeal that left all those involved deeply scarred.

Hence, more than the startup angle, what’s interesting about Billion Dollar Fantasy is the way it examines the dynamic relationship between the competing companies. Most books about startups are origin stories, focusing on one company or more. But Chen has written a book about two companies that not only competed against one another but had to learn to coexist. That is to say: each not only had to muster the resources to become viable individually, but they also needed to arrive at some modus vivendi in order to address the regulatory issues pertaining to their industry. 

As such, whether one is interested to read about Fanduel and Draftkings as startups, or of the “coop-etition” between the two, or of the birth and controversy surrounding online daily fantasy sports in the United States, there’s much to love in Billion Dollar Fantasy.

This book was received as an ARC from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Now that football season is upon us I am seeing a lot of commercials for fanduel and draftkings and how they are proven for all to win money.  I dare must say when I saw these commercials for the first time, I was a little curious and skeptical whether or not these sites were legit and people can really win from them so when I saw that Billion Dollar Fantasy was available to preview, I had to jump at the chance and find out for myself. Hearing the history of draftkings and fanduel was a really interesting road for Nigel, Lesley, and Lieberman all being involved in a civil lawsuit almost ending their careers. Albert Chen does a great job extracting their backgrounds and showcasing the development of the companies and how they grew to the billion dollar industry they are known for today.  Before signing up for accounts, everyone should read this book and know a little about the companies before diving in and pressing their luck on these sites.

We will consider adding this title to our Non-Fiction collection at the library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

Billion Dollar Fantasy takes an in-depth look at the rise of daily sports fantasy websites, mainly FanDuel and DraftKings. The author goes into great detail, looking at the industry from the origins of casino sports-betting and bookmaking, the genesis of online gaming in the poker community, to the tech startup culture that led to these companies entering into rapidly escalating investment and marketing competitions with each other. Through this careful research, the reader can see that this industry that has changed the landscape of sports and gaming did not quite come from nowhere after all.

A fantastic read. Well written and researched, it traces the improbable rise of daily fantasy sports and sports gambling as a whole.

You have undoubtedly seen the ads for DraftKings, FanDuel, and and similar games. It is also very likely that you have played one of these daily fantasy games, and probably even have your preferred brand of choice. This book will give you an in-depth look at how these games came about, the people behind them, and the meteoric rise of these games in America. Albert Chen provides excellent coverage of the war between DraftKings and FanDuel, and how this war has forever influenced and changed sports in America.