DraftKings is a step closer towards its goal of daily fantasy sports domination now that it’s landed a coveted UK gaming license. It’s a huge move for the daily fantasy sports giant that could change the face of the DFS industry on the Continent.
According to published reports, DraftKings received word of the license approval on Monday and moved quickly to implement its UK strategy.
A big part of that particular strategy revolves around the hiring of gambling industry veteran Jeffrey Haas as its Chief International Officer. Haas comes to DraftKings from Bwin.Party where he served as Director of Poker and will work out of DraftKings’ London office.
In press release issued by the company, Haas shared his thoughts on DraftKings and their role in the rapidly expanding DFS vertical saying:
Daily Fantasy Sports is a growing category outside North America, and we have a tremendous opportunity to engage sports fans around the world. We will look to maintain our leadership position in the Daily Fantasy Sports industry – creating innovative games across the most sports, providing our players with elite customer service and fostering mutually-beneficial relationships with our partners.
Current DraftKings CEO, Jason Robins described the expansion as a, “milestone,” and he’s right on the money. The move into the European DFS market is the fruit DraftKings’ aggressive marketing efforts, and the impact they’ve had on venture capitalists – whose chase made the UK move possible.
Even better, DraftKings is now poised to make a huge dent in the UK market before Fan Duel – the world’s biggest DFS site and DraftKings’ number one competitor – has a chance at UK punters.
DraftKings expects their UK operation to be up and running by the end of Q4 2015.