ESPN: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of FanDuel and DraftKings
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It has been, by any measure, a spectacular fall.http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/17374929/otl-investigates-implosion-daily-fantasy-sports-leaders-draftkings-fanduel
The industry's implosion began with a series of tactical mistakes made by a pair of bitterly hostile startup companies that all but dared federal and state authorities to shut down the sites over concerns the games constituted illegal gambling. Outside the Lines interviewed more than 50 company executives, current and former players, legislators, lobbyists, lawyers, investigators and industry consultants and found that the companies' troubles were triggered, in part, by a toxic combination of young executives' hubris and ignorance, reckless risk-taking and raw political naïveté. Infused with a false sense of security from FanDuel's and DraftKings' surging valuations and soaring revenues, the companies' co-founders and CEOs – Nigel Eccles, 41, of FanDuel and Jason Robins, 35, of DraftKings – waged a self-destructive, kill-or-be-killed race toward industry supremacy and a life-changing payday that they now acknowledge was crazy for all of the cash it torched, the wrong messages it sent and the legal and media tsunami it unleashed.
get money quick, lose money quick. young bravado and hubris claims another victim.
As far as daily sports fantasy, they're better off just calling it what it is: gambling where the vast majority of its players will lose.
As far as daily sports fantasy, they're better off just calling it what it is: gambling where the vast majority of its players will lose.
By Trey Go To Postget money quick, lose money quick. young bravado and hubris claims another victim.It's no different than fantasy football office pools, only instead of a random guy holding the pot it's a company. Slippery slope.
As far as daily sports fantasy, they're better off just calling it what it is: gambling where the vast majority of its players will lose.
By The Frankman Go To PostIt's no different than fantasy football office pools, only instead of a random guy holding the pot it's a company. Slippery slope.
that's gambling too. the difference is you might reach a pot in the 10s of thousands at an office pool, whereas two multi billion dollar corporations are calling a game of chance a game of skill and siphoning billions of dollars from millions of players. they had to have known the state legislatures and the casino lobbyist were gonna come for their neck.
DraftKings embedded gambling phrases into its website to help gamblers find it using Google searches like "fantasy golf betting" and "weekly fantasy basketball betting," documents show. That occurred despite its leaders' assurances that it offered legal skill games and, in the fine print of its ads, that DraftKings is "not a gambling website."
they wanted their cake and to eat it, too
There's a stat in there that DFS baseball players win about 1.3% of the time. ONE.POINT.THREE.PERCENT.
There was more bad news, but this time it hit publicly. McKinsey & Company released an alarming study showing that a tiny percentage of daily fantasy players win consistently – only 1.3 percent playing baseball.The whole "skill" aspect gets thrown out the window when you allow scripts and cater to your sharks because they bring in the most money.
The fact that their own engineers and employees were playing on their rivals website with data from their own algorithms and using that to stack their bets in their favor is fucking deplorable. How could they think no one would come after them?
I do believe in business that greed is a good thing. But if you get down to the nuts and bolts of what was going on here it's painfully clear that this wasn't good business, this was barely a business at all. This was savvy, young, technologically gifted men who got cocky, and thought they could bend the rules to out and out steal from people.
I do believe in business that greed is a good thing. But if you get down to the nuts and bolts of what was going on here it's painfully clear that this wasn't good business, this was barely a business at all. This was savvy, young, technologically gifted men who got cocky, and thought they could bend the rules to out and out steal from people.
The founders are not "young". These aren't some 19-22 year old kids. Both Fanduel and DraftKings were founded by men in their late 30s and early 40s -- they don't even have the excuse of "immaturity" due to age. It was just flat out hubris.
I thought they were in their mid 20's when they started. But if we're talking 30's then they're certainly not children.
By GQman2121 Go To PostI thought they were in their mid 20's when they started.That's still pushing it and it doesn't change the narrative at all. Still plenty of time to grow the fuck up.
It's important to understand the context though. 25-30 is a grown adult, but their lack of experience turning into cockiness and bravado does in part fit their age. Folks think they're invincible.
By Trey Go To PostIt's important to understand the context though. 25-30 is a grown adult, but their lack of experience turning into cockiness and bravado does in part fit their age. Folks think they're invincible.I'd argue it's also relative to other things as well, it's not like Madoff, Adelphia, Enron, Tyco, etc were spring chickens.
Interesting article.
Knew about the analytics side of it for a while. And yeah i read that times article years ago so was never even interested in these "things".
When they let the analytics run the whole thing it just became wholey un-interesting. Cause i was never going to have that much time to build one. And the odds seemed worse than the lotto out side of that.
Knew about the analytics side of it for a while. And yeah i read that times article years ago so was never even interested in these "things".
When they let the analytics run the whole thing it just became wholey un-interesting. Cause i was never going to have that much time to build one. And the odds seemed worse than the lotto out side of that.
By reilo Go To PostThe founders are not "young". These aren't some 19-22 year old kids. Both Fanduel and DraftKings were founded by men in their late 30s and early 40s – they don't even have the excuse of "immaturity" due to age. It was just flat out hubris.
This reminds me of how the media wanted to call Locthe a kid, lol.