DraftKings.com fantasy sports startup might have a cheezy website design, but that’s not stopping it from attracting venture revenue. According to Crunchbase, the organization that pays you money for successfully playing fantasy sports raised $24 million.
The Series B fund-raising for the Boston-based startup was led by Redpoint Ventures with participation from GGV Capital and Atlas Venture.
But what this proves is that fantasy sports online is not just big, but huge business. Regular people like Katie Nolan, featured on the DraftKing’s website, have earned money beating their competitors in fantasy sports.
“DraftKings has had an amazing year but we are even more excited about what the future holds,” said Jason Robins, DraftKings CEO. ”Going forward, we will continue to prioritize customer experience, leveraging both our online and mobile platforms. Mobile, in particular, will be an area of focus for us in 2014. Redpoint and GGV both have deep experience in mobile gaming, which we found really attractive in a capital partner.”
Prior to DraftKings.com’s news, the big player in fantasy sports was FanDuel, which raised $11 million in January of 2013.
What’s the draw? Eyeballs and engagement and sports. If you can develop a website experience which mates the first two with sports, you’re off to the races.
Stay tuned.