US sports-oriented Revolution Growth leads new investment
Daily fantasy sports operator DraftKings has announced the achievement of a new capital infusion of $153 million following a funding round led by Revolution Growth, a US sports-oriented investment group founded by Ted Leonsis.
The new cash is available just in time for the US NFL football season, which starts next week.
Announcing the new investment, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins commented in a statement Thursday:
"The round was oversubscribed and participants include several new investors, such as Revolution Growth. Revolution Growth is a tremendous new partner for DraftKings, with an entrepreneurial outlook and spirit of innovation that meshes perfectly with the culture of our company. They also have deep expertise in sports, technology, and policy."
Steve Murray, a partner at Revolution Growth, will be joining the board of directors at DraftKings.
"Online fantasy sports are just one of the many ways technology has disrupted the sports industry in recent years," Murray said in a statement. "Building a business is never easy, especially one that is leading the creation of a new marketplace, but Revolution has the expertise to help entrepreneurs execute on their ideas, especially where sports and policy intersect."
DraftKings has been coy about how in intends to deploy the new capital, but there have been recent reports that the company is now valued "substantially lower" than the $2 billion the company was worth when it raised $300 million in a funding round in July last year.
Since then, the DFS industry has been under siege from political and enforcement bodies following an 'insider' betting scandal, necessitating heavy legal and lobbying costs in addition to the high marketing budgets DraftKings has been accustomed to spending.
Revolution Growth led a similar funding round last year that raised $44 million for Sportradar, a supplier of sports and betting-related live data, odds solutions and fraud detection services.
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