iGB Intelligence reports Social Gaming report | Page 30

Conclusion

test is whether they can transcend the early adopters
and scale up sufficiently to appeal to the mass-market,
casual bettors. This is no easy task in countries such as
the UK, where gamblers are spoilt for choice in terms
of betting options and products.

Fantasy or reality?

The DFS operators launching in the UK and elsewhere
are bullish about the potential, yet this form of P2P
gambling is still judged to be, if not obscure, then
certainly unfamiliar to most season-long fantasy
football players and regular punters alike. The
operators and platform suppliers, unsurprisingly,
would argue that it is still early days for DFS in Europe,
and that their offering is more fun, skillful and social
than striking a one-time bet with a faceless sportsbook.
Yet there’s no escaping the fact that the phenomenal
growth of DFS in the US (before all the legal challenges)

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was mainly down to sports betting being outlawed
in most states (DFS benefiting from the 2006 UIGEA
carve-out). In addition, American sports are very statsorientated and matches take place virtually seven days
a week. Plus, the US has the population to support
DFS. In the UK and other European markets, however,
football dominates while legal online and land-based
sports betting are omnipresent and ingrained in society.
Punters don’t tend to go through the rigmarole of
assembling a roster of players in a bid to outsmart
dozens, hundreds or thousands of players to win a share
of a guaranteed prize pool.
We will have to wait and see whether DraftKings or
FanDuel can overcome their lack of brand awareness
and acquire enough players to sustain them, especially
when launching into a saturated and mature betting
market such as the UK.
Time will tell, as they say.

iGaming Business Social Media & Mobile Betting Report