FanDuel, DraftKings merger seen as imminent

Monday 31st of October 2016

The two biggest daily fantasy sports companies are close to joining forces under the leadership of DraftKings co-founder Jason Robins, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.

Nigel Eccles, FanDuel’s co-founder, will be chairman of the board. Speculation the two companies are planning an imminent merger has been growing in the market, though there had been a sticking point over who would lead the combined company.

Together the two fantasy sports companies control about 90 percent of the market, which may raise antitrust concerns, it said.

DraftKings was founded in Boston in 2012 and has offices in New York and London. It’s the exclusive DFS partner of Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Hockey League and NASCAR.

In a statement on its website, DraftKings said: “As we have stated previously, a potential combination would be interesting to consider. However, as a matter of policy, we don’t comment on rumors or speculation, and there can be no assurances at this time that any discussion about a combination would result in an agreement or merger.”

FanDuel was founded in 2009 and claims to have more than one million active paying users.