Pennsylvania daily fantasy sports are off to a good start. According to a report in Casino.org, the two major DFS players in the state, FanDuel and DraftKings, respectively reported adjusted revenue (income after distributing winnings) of $673,013 and $632,008. The combined $12.4 million accounts for 98 percent of the state’s entire DFS market.
Ten DFS operators have paid the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board a $50,000 licensing fee to offer online fantasy sports contests. According to the report, after the two dominant leaders, DRAFT reported earnings of about $17,000. Yahoo Fantasy Sports was fourth with just $4,430, and Fantasy Draft rounding out the top five with $2,500.
FanDuel and DraftKings are both expected to get into the sports betting game. “The companies believe their large pools of players, people who are already accustomed to betting money online, will provide them with an upper hand in the new sports betting arena,” wrote Casino.org.
The two dominant DFS players, though, should not be permitted to dominate the online sports betting market, wrote Penn National Gaming in a public comment to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on its sports-betting policy. In fact, Penn wrote that the two DFS behemoths should be shut out of the market, or at least from providing white-label platforms for online sports betting.
“PNG is opposed to the issuance of any ‘skins’ that would allow for new ‘white label’ online/mobile sports wagering operations by third parties in Pennsylvania which utilize brands that are currently not in use in the state (for example, DraftKings or Fan Duel),” Penn wrote in its letter.
“The failure to prohibit ‘skins’ with respect to online/mobile sports wagering would present significant new competition to the incumbent casino operators and result in overall saturation of the marketplace, as is occurring in the online gaming marketplace in New Jersey.”
