10 global teams will battle it out over two weeks to find the ultimate Daily Fantasy Sports nation

What: The DraftKings World Cup sets national teams of the best DraftKings DFS players from around the world against each other to determine the elite DFS playing nation, and to crown the first DraftKings World Cup Champion.

Ten teams from each country where DraftKings operates DFS are represented in this special two-week series that aims to both fuel the competitive spirits and sporting rivalry between nations.

Who: 10 teams of 10 players will be participating.

The teams include USA East, USA West, Canada, England, Scotland, The Republic of Ireland, Wales, Germany, Australia and the Rest of Europe, with each country having 10 players representing the nations. The individuals selected are some of the best DraftKings DFS players from across each of the countries as well as several ‘wildcards’ filled through qualifier contests.

When: The DraftKings World Cup will be run over two weeks, from 22^nd October to 1^st November.

The top four teams with the highest combined points in week one will progress to the final, with the remaining six teams eliminated.

Scoring: The teams will collect points by betting on six different events in the first week including the English Premier League (EPL), PGA golf, Major League Baseball (MLB), Australian Football League (AFL), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and the NFL. Only the top four teams will qualify for the final week where the events will be PGA, UFC, EPL, NFL and Nascar.

Week one has a total of six events. All 100 players enter each contest. If you get first place, you get 100 points for your country and if you get last, you only get 1 point. Second place gets 99 points, third place 98 points, and so on.

Yellow events highlighted above are the five Premiere Events, where points count as double (first place gets 200, last place gets 2).

Payout Structure: As this is a team competition, all overall prizes are split between team members. However, there will be individual prizes for the winner of each contest ($500 or $1000 for premiere events). The top prize is $10,000.

1^st – $10,000 2^nd – $7,500 3^rd – $5,000 4^th – $2,500

Engagement: To further build interest and engagement, DraftKings has created a shadow contest that will run alongside the main event where any DFS players can win a share of a prize pool if they beat the top score of those participating in the DK World Cup. All shadow events will offer $1,000 with the final contest NFL (11/1) being $3,000

A landing page will be live later this week which will be the one-stop-shop for those wanting to follow and it will include teams, live leaderboard, contests and shadow links etc.

Clinton Gray, VIP Manager at DraftKings, said: “Fan engagement is paramount at DraftKings and, ahead of a packed lives sports schedule next year, we are fueling the competitive spirits of our player base by launching a World Cup featuring teams from every country we are active in across an array of daily fantasy sports categories. It will be a thrilling two weeks of fierce competition and we look forward to crowning the first DFS World Cup team winners.”

A landing page will hopefully be live later this week which will be the one stop shop for those wanting to follow and it will include teams, live leaderboard, contest and shadow links etc.

Daily fantasy sports (DFS) has been one of the fastest-growing gambling verticals in the US in recent years. Leading the charge are fantasy sports giants FanDuel and DraftKings, which together have amassed over 90% of the market share for DFS. As with many other things, what starts in the US tends to make its way to Europe and fantasy sports betting is no exception.

Playing fantasy sports in itself is nothing new to Europeans, neither is using it as a form of betting. However, in the past few years DFS have grown exceptionally fast, this is in part due to the fact that the US has legalized sports betting in several states. When this happened in 2018, Americans were already used to DFS and it was a natural transition to start betting on them. It wasn’t long before this transition caught the attention of European iGaming companies, amongst them is the affiliate company Leadstar Media, who sees the potential that DFS possess. 

– I can’t for certain say that what has happened in the US is the reason for the growth we see in Europe. But from what we’ve observed there’s been a growing interest in DFS since PASPA was overturned. In several of the European markets where we operate, the demand for DFS is higher than ever, especially in Sweden, says Jacob Ljunggren, Product Director at Leadstar Media

To capitalize on this, Leadstar Media have started to update their Swedish products to suit the new sports betting landscape.

– Our Swedish site Bettingstugan.se is currently undergoing an overhaul and one of the things we’re focusing on is fantasy sports betting.

As of today, only 2 companies with Swedish licenses offer fantasy betting. Both are powered by B2B fantasy sports provider Scout Gaming. A company which Ljunggren praises as the best product in the European market when it comes to DFS.

– The products that Scout Gaming offer are really solid and the number of sports you can play on their platform are constantly increasing showing that they are really invested in what many people believe is the future of iGaming. However there are still some areas that can be improved before they are comparable to FanDuel and DraftKings, says Ljunggren.

Scout Gaming Group were quick to adapt their offerings when all major sports came to a halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic, launching CSGO fantasy. 

What do you think the future is for DFS betting?

– The potential in this segment is huge. Fantasy sports are about more than just betting, they offer a form of entertainment that we’re not used to. I think this is one of the biggest realisations our industry is going to see in the future. Betting is all about entertainment, and the iGaming industry is competing for people’s attention with other sources of entertainment such as Netflix and video games. Fantasy sports marries betting and entertainment perfectly, as you aren’t playing against the bookmaker but against other players. Also, fantasy sports appeal to a broader audience that wouldn’t normally place bets, says Ljunggren