Can Draft Kings Conquer the UK?

Draft Kings is one of the largest and most popular real money daily fantasy sports sites in the US but can it make its mark on the UK market? It's certainly about to try and has been awarded a UK gaming license that allows it to make its first steps in what is, as yet, an untried daily fantasy sports area. With news of that license comes the hiring of the ex Bwin.Party exec Jeffrey Haas who has the task of taking the US giants Draft Kings into the UK.

US daily fantasy sports focuses heavily on the main US sports of NFL, MLB and NBA and while that offering will of course be available to UK players, it is of course soccer, or football to give the UK term, that gets sports fans excited. This is huge news for Draft Kings, as their main rivals in the US fantasy sports arena, that of Fan Duel have not yet received UK licensing, giving them a huge head start in their attempts to become the leading UK daily fantasy sports site, however it may not pan out exactly as Draft Kings want it to.

The sports gambling scene is very different in the UK than it is in the US and many UK punters may very well be happy with what they have already, and that is fully licensed, regulated online sports gambling on just about anything and everything that moves. The UK has in fact led the way in online sports betting for many years with its top online sportsbooks catering for millions of players every day and it really is unknown as yet whether real money daily fantasy sports can compete with real sports wagering in this part of the world. To many Brits, fantasy football is a game that's played between friends and lasts a Premiership season long and maybe Draft Kings hardest task is to convince players that fantasy sports can and is just as exciting as real money sports wagering.