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DFS start-up Underdog has extra firepower to enter the US cell sports activities betting market after securing $35m in Sequence B funding. [Image: Shutterstock.com]
Agency’s worth soars
The worth of New York-based day by day fantasy sports activities (DFS) agency Underdog Fantasy has grown to $485m after a second fundraising spherical raised $45m.
fund injection led by one of many world’s largest asset managers
The DFS agency introduced its Sequence B funding windfall on Tuesday. Underdog’s head of content material technique and manufacturing, Josh Norris, took to Twitter to announce the fund injection led by one of many world’s largest asset managers NYC-based BlackRock:
Additionally concerned within the $35m funding was Acies Funding, a California-headquartered sports activities betting, iGaming and eSports enterprise capital agency. Acies co-founding accomplice Chris Gove stated that Underdog’s “distinctive give attention to product and expertise will reshape the business” because the DFS agency plans a transfer into licensed sports activities betting, beginning with Ohio and Colorado in 2023.
Sports activities betting buzz
À la FanDuel and DraftKings, Underdog’s goal is to broaden from DFS to cell sports activities betting. It has already efficiently utilized for a sports activities wagering license within the lively Colorado market in addition to Ohio, which is ready to launch January 1, 2023. According to the Wall Street Journal, Underdog is on “an aggressive hiring spree” to draw over 100 new staff because it seeks to construct licensed sports activities wagering merchandise.
In a news release Tuesday, Gove underscored why Underdog is so interesting to traders throughout the US sports activities wagering business. “Whereas the standard sportsbook is spending over $500 to accumulate a buyer, Underdog is bringing in new customers for a fraction of that,” he commented.
Since launching in 2020 with its first gaming product, Underdog has already attracted high-profile backers, from US sports activities stars equivalent to Odell Beckham Jr and Kevin Durant to rappers Nas and Future, together with DJ Steve Aoki. Business traders embody ex-Paddy Energy Betfair CEO Breon Corcoran, billionaire Mark Cuban, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, and boutique analysis firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming.
Underdog on the up
After Tuesday’s funding, Underdog’s president and chair Jeremy Levine stated that ever since its 2020 launch, the DFS agency has believed that:
constructing high quality merchandise and placing clients first is a profitable recipe.”
Levine added that the recent funding spherical provides Underdog “the firepower to proceed to construct and construct we are going to.”
He additionally stated his agency was “thrilled” that funds and accounts managed by fellow NYC entity BlackRock are collaborating in its second fundraising spherical as Underdog continues to pursue its imaginative and prescient.