Daily fantasy has become all the rage. We’ve seen companies like DraftKings and FanDuel become household names almost overnight as the popularity of daily fantasy sports games has seen a significant rise. Perhaps the biggest sign of the DFS explosion is ESPN’s entry into the space in their equity deal with DraftKings.
And now the competition is only going to get more serious as a giant in the fantasy sports space will be making the transition into daily fantasy – Yahoo Sports.
Yahoo announced they will be working on their own daily fantasy product to complement their season long offerings, which are at the top of the industry.
https://twitter.com/YahooInc/status/590624664906571777
Eric Fisher had more details from the announcement:
Yahoo says re daily fantasy game in development it is building "unique take on this game genre to bolster our leadership in fantasy sports"
— Eric Fisher (@EricFisherSBJ) April 21, 2015
Yahoo: normally we do not announce products before launch but this has been such an area of interest for our fantasy players & our investors
— Eric Fisher (@EricFisherSBJ) April 21, 2015
Yahoo, with big base of traditional fantasy players, is betting daily market is young enough that FD,DK don't have insurmountable lead
— Eric Fisher (@EricFisherSBJ) April 21, 2015
ESPN, as we know, is going partnership/investment route in daily w DK. So w Yahoo making intentions known, that once again raises ? re NFL
— Eric Fisher (@EricFisherSBJ) April 21, 2015
This seems to be a pretty obvious move for Yahoo to make. They already have much of the fantasy infrastructure, and much more importantly, a built-in customer base. Instead of going to DraftKings or FanDuel, a Yahoo Fantasy Sports player could just keep all their daily and season-long fantasy under one roof.
The marketplace is definitely getting crowded in daily fantasy, but it appears that the industry is still decisively on the upswing. If Yahoo is going to get involved and make their claim for the top daily fantasy sports outlet, now is the time to enter the race.