FanDuel has purchased the daily-fantasy startup AlphaDraft, which debuted earlier this year. The idea is provide a FanDuel-like experience for multiplayer online arena shooters and battlers alike.
A day after DraftKings announced its expansion into esports next month with daily-fantasy games like League of Legends, competitor FanDuel is doing the same through the AlphaDraft acquisition. Rumors of this acquirement have been circulating for a few weeks, although AlphaDraft was also hearing deals from DraftKings and Yahoo Fantasy.
Fantasy sports is a multibillion-dollar industry, and daily fantasy is pushing that profits to record heights. Simultaneously, the reputation of pro gaming is on the rise, and so are its paychecks. FanDuel and DraftKings clearly both see this as an opening to get in on the ground floor of what could turn into a colossal business over the next few years. The acquisition of AlphaDraft by FanDuel is likely a good move to make sure its proceeds have a market that it can grow into.
Old-style sports are massively popular at this time. Professional football for example, has most likely never had the level of engagement that it has nowadays. But anxieties around the welfare of contact sports, along with a group of parents who are trying to drudge their kids with the 10,000-hour rule, has youth involvement in sports like basketball, football, and soccer are strikingly falling off.
If statistics keeps revealing that soccer and other physical sports and activities will conclude to brain illness, attentiveness in these sports could wear down with the involvement levels over the next decades, and that is where the rise of electronic sports could make the change.
Millions of people have tuned in to watch occasions like the finals for League of Legends, Counter-Strike, and DOTA 2. Every single competitive-gaming category is seeing over the years the progress in terms of viewership. Dealers and promoters have already taken action, and that has the electronic sports industry on a course to reach more than $465 million in proceeds by 2017. Nevertheless, fantasy esports could have the probability to push this business to $1 billion and more beyond that.
