'Think of it as one-night stand fantasy sports.' Famously quoted by leading publication TechCrunch, it sums up FanDuel, at least in the company's early years.įounded in 2009 by a group of five entrepreneurs in Texas, looking to shake up the fantasy sports market, though also with a view to finding a loophole in the gambling legislation that existed across the US at the time.ĭue to fantasy sports being classed as a 'skill game' rather than 'gambling', the site's first reveal to the public was at the SXSW Interactive festival in the same year that it was founded, after months of intensive programming and testing.īy 2010, courtesy of the FanDuel Fantasy Football Championship (with a prize-winning purse of $40,000), the brand had started to become well-known, at least in those circles, with many turning their backs on the 'season-long' fantasy sports games in favor of the chance to win big over the much shorter term.
