Although they had yet to launch their sports betting platform in the UK, DraftKings still has plenty of customers on these shores that enter their daily fantasy sports contests.
But no more: the American firm has revealed that they are exiting the UK market with immediate effect.
And that likely puts to bed the rumours that DraftKings, who boast one of the largest sports betting customer bases in the United States, were considering entering the UK sector as an online bookmaker.
Keeping It Hush Hush
To describe DraftKings’ announcement of their retreat from UK operations as low key would be a major understatement.
They simply sent out an email to their customers, and posted a short statement on their website, revealing that ‘DraftKings has determined that it is in the best interests of the company to discontinue operations in Great Britain.’
Although the shutdown was effective as of October 4, customers still have time to withdraw any funds in their account – in fact, that grace period runs until June 2025.
The firm has also promised to pay out on any of the virtual currencies that they offer, with 550 DK Crowns being paid at the equivalent of $1 (£0.76). Tickets, DK Dollars and DK Achievements will be settled at their stated cash value.
The reasons behind the decision to leave have not been revealed, although it comes as something of a surprise given that daily fantasy gaming is not subject to the same regulatory headwinds that have impacted the sports betting sector in the UK.
DraftKings does have the necessary ‘pool betting’ licence from the UK Gambling Commission, although that hasn’t completely absolved them from the regulator’s ire – in September, they were sanctioned after breaching social responsibility codes of conduct, with specific reference to their self-exclusion policy.
However, it seems unlikely that DraftKings’ failing was considerable, given that the regulator fined them a relatively paltry £28,750.
The company has invested significantly in their UK operation since launching in 2015. They created a daily fantasy football product to appeal to Premier League fans, established a headquarters in London’s Lime Street from which to plot their anticipated expansion and penned a sponsorship agreement with Liverpool FC.
However, some players have noted that guaranteed prize pools have been falling for some time, with fewer contests suggesting that the firm’s customer base has not increased in size as expected.
And, as we seem to judge things in the modern world, DraftKings’ UK Twitter feed had not been updated since July 2023.
Jump In the Pool
Whether there is a market for paid daily fantasy sports in the UK remains to be seen, although the fact that the Premier League’s official fantasy football game has more than eight million registered users would suggest there’s an opportunity to be had.
However, few major firms have really attempted to grasp the nettle, with DraftKings the latest to exit the UK sector. Yahoo, one of the forerunners on British soil, had upped and left as far back as May 2018, while FanDuel – the main competitor of DraftKings in daily fantasy gaming in the USA – had a very brief foray into the space.
They were initially formed in Scotland back in 2009, before expanding successfully into the American market. However, FanDuel lasted barely a year in the UK, before announcing their decision to shutter their British-facing business in 2017.
Legally speaking, daily fantasy – in which contestants draft a lineup of players in sports ranging from football and golf to MMA and American football – is considered to be a game of skill, and is therefore free from the auspices of the law governing sports betting and casino games.
Instead, operators must be approved for a ‘pool betting’ licence by the UK Gambling Commission, which grants platforms the opportunity to provide betting pools – under which daily fantasy gaming loosely falls.
Any platform in which ‘the stakes are pooled and the amount of money won by the successful customers is calculated by dividing the total pool (minus commission) by the number of winners’, is classed as pool betting – hence DraftKings’ UK operating licence, which at the time of writing they have held since August 2015 and are yet to surrender.
It’s quite possible that traditional betting sites will step into the breach. A number of online bookmakers already offer fantasy sports, with dozens of contests offered every week across sports including football, golf, basketball, ice hockey and American football.