Daily Fantasy Sports

Where sports fall, eSports rise

Published

6 years ago

November 6, 2017

eSport enthusiasts utilize apps and online sites to connect with eSporting communities and forums.

It used to be that a sports team was comprised of neighborhood friends; now it would be quicker and easier to hop on a computer or PlayStation and connect with a gamer in South Korea faster than it would be for the average person to find a soccer ball in their garage. And that is the world we now live in, thanks to eSports.

But what exactly is eSports?

Imagine professional sports mixed with competitive video gaming. According to Owen Good at Kotaku.com, eSports’ humble roots began at Stanford in 1972, as students were invited to an “Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics,” whose grand prize was a year’s subscription for “Rolling Stone.”

Even though the physical talent might be a little relaxed on the eSports side, the competitiveness doesn’t slack off in the slightest.

“Everyone has a great time with it, but there is constantly a lot of competitive talking,” Pensacola State College (PSC) Intramural Coordinator Doug Rogers said.

Who could have imagined that it would only take 45 years for eSports athletes to go from competing for a magazine subscription to battling it out for millions of dollars in tournaments watched by millions of people? One of these million dollar tournaments,“The 2016 League of Legends Championship,” had more viewers than the NBA Finals.

With recruitment scholarships going out to top high school athletes countrywide, it was only a matter of time before colleges started recruiting for eSports. Schools such as Boise State, Columbia and Georgia State have started awarding scholarships to their eSports clubs and the clubs’ top recruits.

With the only requirements being a student’s gaming console of choice and lot of skill, it’s no wonder that eSports is gaining popularity across the globe.

One eSport that the world has seen take off on a very mainstream level is Fantasy Football.

ESPN has a week dedicated to it every year, and you’ll see advertisements for it everywhere (Yahoo, ESPN, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).

With NFL ratings going down and the eSports side of the NFL growing rapidly, it’s hard to definitively say the NFL would still be around without Fantasy Football.

According to Sports Illustrated, “Monday Night Football is down 24% from last year at this time, Sunday Night Football is down 19% and Thursday night is down 18%. ”

This in contrast to fantasy football which has seen skyrocketing numbers. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s Industry Graphics website, usage started at 500,000 users in 1988 and has jumped to 59.3 million in 2017.

Skill and time spent is a big part of the prerequisites, even for eSports such as Fantasy Football.

“I spend a few hours every weekend looking at certain matchups, even height differences, between positions like cornerback and wide receiver to choose who to bet on. I even look at kicker matchups, and I usually pick the kicker who is playing indoors and is used to that,” said former-PSC student, Charles Marek, when describing a method that has worked quite well so far for him.

Even PSC is getting in on the fun by offering Fantasy Football leagues and College Pick ‘Ems to students and faculty.

“Our leagues and picks are open to all students, faculty and staff. Each week the winner of our Pick ‘Ems gets a reward, and the overall winner gets a gift pack at the end of the season,” said Rogers.

It’s not only Fantasy Football and other athletic-based eSports that are taking off. Many video games have also developed their own eSports communities.

“League of Legends” even has different leagues for different regions of the world in addition to having world wide tournaments known as “World Championships.”

Another video game, Counter-strike: Global Offensive has tournaments around the world. Sponsored by the company Valve, majors for Counterstrike have become such a big deal that they are defined by having over one million in their prize pools.

One of leagues, known as the eLeague, is televised. eLeague features production values rivaling ESPN with its own announcers, hosts and experts.

This abrupt change in the definition of sports has come from traditional sports’ lack of acceptance when it comes to athletes.

Someone who stands six feet tall would never make it in the NBA due to their size and lack of athleticism. If that same person wanted to spend the majority of their time playing video games, chances are that they could make a professional eSports team once they became proficient.

With eSports, it doesn’t matter how you look or how fast you run — all that matters is what you can do.

George Miller

George Miller (Gyorgy Molnar) started his career in content marketing and has started working as an Editor/Content Manager for our company in 2016. George has acquired many experiences when it comes to interviews and newsworthy content becoming Head of Content in 2017. He is responsible for the news being shared on multiple websites that are part of the European Gaming Media Network.

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Daily Fantasy Sports

Scout Gaming provides DFS platform to Nordic Leisure

Published

6 years ago

December 22, 2017

George Miller

Scout Gaming is to enter the Latvian and Lithuanian markets for the first time after agreeing to deliver a daily fantasy sports (DFS) platform to Nordic Leisure.

The agreement gives Nordic Leisure, the owner of Optibet and Gold Club Casino, full access to Scout Gaming’s DFS platform enabling them to offer the service across its subsidiaries and to all of its customers.

Scout Gaming’s platform is expected to be fully integrated and operational at Nordic Leisure by the end of 2018.

“I’m pleased that the demand for our offering is increasing,” said Scout Gaming chief executive Andreas Ternström. “Nordic Leisure is a competent, fast growing company with a significant share of its revenues from regulated markets, and I believe they will be a strong partner in the future.”

Nordic Leisure will include all of the group’s brands in the liquidity network being established by Scout Gaming. The network includes or will include Betsson and Bethard, as well as Gofantasy, Fanteam and PAF which have already launched the Scout Gaming DFS product.

“We have strong knowledge about Daily Fantasy Sports internally and when we finally found a product that meet our quality requirements, it was an easy choice,” said Nordic Leisure chief executive Peter Åström. “DFS has a natural fit in our existing product offering, and we see clear synergies with our broader media- and sports activities within the group.”

Awards

Oulala Wins ‘Best DFS Product’ Award

Published

6 years ago

December 11, 2017

George Miller

Malta-based DFS firm beats six other finalists

Oulala, the daily fantasy sports (DFS) operator and B2B provider, clinched the ‘Best DFS Product’ award for the second year in a row at SBC Awards ceremony in London.

Hosted by former footballer Luis Garcia and sports presenter Matt Lorenzo, the event featured a full 28 award categories this year – 11 Operator/Affiliate awards and 17 Supplier awards.

Oulala was represented by Oliver Niner, the company’s Business Development Director. ”I would like to congratulate the SBC team for organising this splendid event as well as to express my sincere gratitude to the judges for showing their appreciation for our hard work,” said Niner after accepting the award. ”We are constantly striving to improve our product offer in order to provide our partners with the best Daily Fantasy Football platform on the market. Our latest deals with Marsbet, Safaribet Kenya and Bravio Gaming prove that we are moving in the right direction.”

A panel of 57 judges, most of whom are top executives in the business, selected Oulala as the best in class among seven finalists.

2017 has been another eventful and successful year for the Oulala team ‒ the company’s CEO, Valery Bollier won the ICE VOX Prophet award at ICE, while Oulala was also selected as a superfinalist at the World Football Summit StartCup Challenge by GSIC and the KPMG Game Changers Global Startup Competition. Additionally, Oulala was also nominated for ”Skill Games Supplier of the Year” at the EGR B2B Awards 2017 and for ”Fantasy Sports Operator Award” at the EGR Operator Awards 2017.

About Oulala

Oulala, a B2B-licensed fantasy sports provider, is the company behind an award-winning daily fantasy football management game launched in August 2013. Its highly innovative and advanced scoring system in fantasy football uses 70 different statistical criteria, which are then converted into fantasy points in real time accordingly. A monetised version of the site, launched at the end of 2015, is now used as a case study to present the efficiency of the game to future B2B partners. The latter may opt for a fully customised solution with API, Iframe and Turnkey delivery.

Daily Fantasy Sports

FanDuel CEO exits, former CFO returns to take his place

Published

6 years ago

November 22, 2017

George Miller

FanDuel has announced that Nigel Eccles has stepped down as chief executive, with former chief financial officer Matt King to move into the role.

Eccles led FanDuel since he co-founded the daily fantasy sports (DFS) company in 2009, but will now exit the business and also depart its board of directors in order to “focus on his next venture”.

King was chief financial officer at FanDuel from 2014 until 2016 and will now take up the position of chief executive and join the board with immediate effect.

Most recently, King served as president of regional operations and corporate development at Cottingham & Butler and, prior to his time with FanDuel, was also a director at Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts and Co., as well as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.

“With his strategic vision, range of experiences, and broad skillset, I cannot imagine a better individual to steer FanDuel forward,” Eccles said.

“With tremendous legislative strides in the past two years and the business moving into profitability in Q4, FanDuel is in a great position; I know Matt is the leader to capitalise on the momentum in the sports technology space to take FanDuel to the next level.”

The FanDuel Board also said in a statement: “Nigel achieved something remarkable, he completely redefined an existing industry; his passion, intelligence, and focus have been the bedrock of FanDuel’s success.

“We would like to offer our sincere thanks as he leaves to pursue his next venture.

“We are excited to work with Matt again; he is an exceptional executive who knows the business intimately, and has a clear vision for its next phase of growth.”

Speaking about his return to the company, King added: “Over the past eight years, Nigel has built one of the most disruptive companies in the sports world.

“I look forward to working with our talented team to make FanDuel the place for fans to engage with sports they love in new and exciting ways.”

Meanwhile, FanDuel has also confirmed the appointment of Carl Vogel as its new chairman of the board, while David Nathanson will now join the company as an independent director.

Vogel was previously vice-chairman and president of US satellite broadcaster Dish Network Corp., and also spent time as president and chief executive of Charter Communication.

Nathanson served in various senior roles during an 18-year spell with US media company 21st Century Fox, recently as head of business operations at Fox Sports Media Group.