DraftKings secured $100 million in investor funding this week from an investment group that’s headed by the part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. This latest influx of cash is great news for the troubled daily fantasy sports operator as it struggles to turn a profit and pay off its massive legal bills.
Todd Boehly, a Los Angeles investor, and his firm Eldridge Industries LLC were the lead investors in this round of funding. Officials at DraftKings are hoping that Boehly’s extensive media experience will help the company navigate the troubled waters it surely faces in the future.
The company was also hoping, it seems, that no one noticed that they’d gone searching for a new round of investment. DraftKings’ first shot at an announcement surrounding the matter did not include the amount that Eldridge was investing. That number was revealed only after Bloomberg.com took up the matter with company officials.
In a public statement on the matter, DraftKings Chief Executive Officer Jason Robins explained why Eldrige was a good partner for his firm saying:
We were looking for a funding partner who could bring additional depth to the table…(Eldridge) has a deep bench of experts to help fuel DraftKings’ continuing growth as a sports entertainment company.
This latest round of funding also has the distinction of being the first round of funding since DraftKings announced its proposed merger with its arch rival, FanDuel. That merger would result in a company that controlled 90 percent of the US daily fantasy sports market. That’s a big chunk of the market and it could be enough to entice anti-trust regulators to block the deal entirely.