Thursday September 03,2015 : FANDUEL MORE THAN QUADRUPLES OFFICE SPACE
Daily fantasy sports firm takes up residence on Madison Ave.
Daily fantasy sports provider FanDuel has more than quadrupled its head office accommodation following a move to a 14 floor building on New York's upmarket Madison Avenue – boosting office space from 9,000 sq. ft. to 41,000 sq. ft. at a cost of $3.3 million.
The office accommodation costs pale in comparison with the tens of millions which the company has been investing in advertising to acquire players as it competes for business against arch rival DraftKings, new but heavyweight arrival Yahoo and a growing number of smaller operators.
The fantasy sports world boasts 56.8 million active players in the U.S. and Canada, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. Of those, roughly 20 percent are participating exclusively in DFS, up from 8 percent in 2013.
They are attracted by the excitement and the possibility of big money – thanks to a series of legal technicalities, DFS players can win cash through what many industry observers consider to be gambling.
Although it has yet to turn a profit due to the high marketing investment to which it is committed, FanDuel co-founder and CEO Nigel Eccles claimed recently that his company achieved $57 million in revenue last year. "The growth has just been phenomenal," he said, predicting that DFS will be a billion-dollar business in just five years.
Like its rival DraftKings, Fanduel has entered into sport sponsorship deals that widen its brand reach and enhance advertising spend. In June this year, FanDuel deepened its exclusive 4-year deal with the NBA and its teams, adding nearly half the league's teams to its roster. CBS Sports has a media partnership with FanDuel, complete with a daily live video show featuring DFS content, along with brand integration that includes graphics and exclusive promotional spots.
The demographic attracted to the genre is high quality and profitable; 18- to 49-year-old, college-educated, relatively well-heeled, early adopter males who actively play fantasy sports games, and are at the forefront of online gaming, sports and technology.