- Yahoo (YHOO -2.6%) is jumping into the daily fantasy sports arena, a potentially lucrative field that is getting more crowded as big media firms pick out partners.
- The company launched its site to host daily and weekly games where fans assemble rosters and earn points based on game performance in those short-term competitions.
- An estimated 57M participants in the U.S. and Canada average spending $465 a year on fees and materials related to the short-term fantasy games, Ipsos says. That adds up to about $2.6B in entry fees, and potentially hundreds of millions in revenue for Yahoo.
- The space is dominated now by FanDuel and DraftKings -- the former of which has major investments from Comcast as well as KKR and Shamrock Ventures, and the latter with its own millions in venture funding and a relationship with ESPN. Both companies have been valued at $1B.
- Yahoo's not starting from scratch, though: Daily games are dependent on quick and voluminous data, which the company has been offering sports fans for years.
- Press release
- Previously: Blistering pace of growth at FanDuel (Jan. 13 2015)