Amaya Gaming’s push to become the dominant force in online gaming keeps rolling, as the owner of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker announced yesterday that it now intends to enter the Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) space this year.
In this week’s earnings call, Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov briefly explained that the company is looking at more than one approach to getting in to the burgeoning gambling space, saying, “We have also taken the strategic decision to enter the daily fantasy sports category and are pursuing parallel tracks of internal development and strategic acquisition. We expect to provide more details on this strategy in the second half of 2015 but see a clear crossover from poker and daily fantasy sports.”
He is right about the crossover between poker and DFS. Many poker players, especially those in the United States who have had a harder time playing online in recent years, have taken up DFS as a means to make money gambling. It is widely considered a game that combines skill and luck in a similar way to poker: participants must be skilled at analyzing matchups and understanding player value in constructing their fantasy rosters, but at the same time have no control over how the games actually play out. And just as online poker is comprised of short sessions, so is DFS, hence the “Daily” part of the term. In the long run, the most skilled players will likely profit, but it is easy to jump in and out of games every day.
One DFS site, in particular, embodies the poker-DFS crossover appeal. DraftDay.com, launched in September 2011, was founded by Taylor Caby and Andrew Wiggins, the founders of poker training site, CardRunners.com.
Baazov added that the company’s goal is to launch in time for the 2015 NFL season, which begins September 4th.
What will be interesting now, among other things, is whether Amaya will acquire a Daily Fantasy Sports site or build one of its own. If the past is any indication, the company will probably look to make a purchase, but the problem there is cost. The two leading DFS sites, DraftKings and FanDuel, have seen their valuations head north of $1 billion, which would likely make it difficult for Amaya to foot the bill, considering it still has to pay the $4.9 billion price tag it agreed upon when it bought PokerStars last year.
Baazov also noted that because of Amaya’s massive customer base, he doesn’t think any existing site’s software could handle the traffic Amaya would bring to the table. In online poker cash games alone, PokerStars attracts an average of 18,000 players per day, according to PokerScout.com. Full Tilt adds another 1,600. And again, that’s just cash games. It doesn’t count tournaments or casino gambling.
Additionally, that doesn’t count anybody from the United States, as Americans cannot play on those sites. Daily Fantasy Sports is one of the few ways people in the United States are allowed to gamble online; it has been growing by leaps and bounds in this country. With PokerStars’ name behind a DFS product, be it purchased or developed from scratch, an Amaya offering has the potential to garner a great deal of attention and, in turn, traffic.
