FanDuel co-founder and CEO Nigel Eccles went first and then was followed by DraftKings co-founder and CEO Jason Robins. FanDuel recently closed $70 million in funding while DraftKings secured $41 million.
Eccles disclosed in his interview that FanDuel expects to have 600,000 registered users by year's end. That bested what Robins disclosed that DraftKings would have 500,000 registered users. Robins disclosed that this weekend that DraftKings would be offering $5 million in prizes. That was better than FanDuel's $1 million weekend.
When asked how FanDuel was better than DraftKings, Eccles listed three points: FanDuel was twice as big as DraftKings, FanDuel focused on mobile and FanDuel had better live events such as the World Fantasy Football Championship that provided $10 million in prizes.
Robins refuted that FanDuel was twice as large DraftKings and said that the two were closer in size while also claiming that FanDuel was losing market share. Robins was also able to tout DraftKings own mobile application and user experience. DraftKings is currently also the official MLB daily game.
FanDuel Nigel Eccles Interview
DraftKings Jason Robins Interview
Commentary:
One of topics that both Eccles and Robins could probably agree on is that daily fantasy game is considered a game of skill rather than a game of chance. The distinction is important so that daily fantasy is not considered gambling.
Both CEOs are hoping that the daily fantasy makes it to the mainstream so that their market can continue to grow. FanDuel is already projecting $40 million in revenue this year. In addition the pitch for both companies to players is the lure of prizes and the motivation of players to go with one or the other sites based on the payout. To me that limits their target audience to those types of players. Thus is different from the ad-based game providers such as ESPN and Yahoo! However, even those game provider are watching closely at this disruptive market. With the growth of this segment, I would imagine someone in Washington D.C. is also asking the question if this type of fantasy sports is a game of skill rather than a game of chance, if anything to at least to put the gambling question to rest.
