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- The explosive growth of fantasy sports, and its involvement with new categories of competition like eSports, increase the need for high-end resources like the platform offered by Fantasy Labs
- The explosive growth of fantasy sports, and its involvement with new categories of competition like eSports, increase the need for high-end resources like the platform offered by Fantasy Labs
Daily fantasy sports sites like FanDuel and DraftKings are under attack in states like New York and Illinois, but the savviest of investors have not given up on the potential for growth in the space. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and investor on the popular TV show Shark Tank, has become an investor in Fantasy Labs, a daily fantasy sports analytics platform.
Terms of Cuban's investment in Fantasy Labs were not disclosed. Co-Founder Jonathan Bales says it is a "significant enough amount of money to bring on a bunch of talented people so we can really scale our product development to create new tools and expand to new verticals, as well as ramp up marketing efforts."
It is clear that Cuban is committed to furthering the fantasy sports industry. He is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Fantasy Sports Trade Association Winter Conference in Dallas on January 20, 2016.
" The explosive growth of fantasy sports, and its involvement with new categories of competition like eSports, increase the need for high-end resources like the platform offered by Fantasy Labs ," said Mark Cuban. "I'm excited to be involved with a company that is working to advance an industry that is poised for huge growth."
Fantasy Labs, which was created within the past year, provides a platform of proprietary daily fantasy sports data, tools and analytics, allowing users to leverage its massive database of stats and information for a competitive advantage. It provides a "Lineup Optimizer" that automatically generates optimal lineups based on player projection models and a "Trends" feature, allowing users to determine what factors are priced into player salaries on DraftKings and FanDuel.
With so much scrutiny directed at the daily fantasy sports industry for enabling a select few to win the majority of competitions (a study found that 91% of daily fantasy sports profits were won by 1.3% of players in the first half of the 2015 Major League Baseball season), Fantasy Labs could help to level the playing field.
Tools and analytics are currently offered for MLB, National League Football and National Basketball Association contests. Fantasy Labs has plans to introduce eSports-related offerings in the future. Its new investor, Mark Cuban, previously invested in eSports betting platform Unikrn.
In a recent interview with Fortune, Cuban said that he decided to invest in Unikrn because, "Gambling is available in more than 100 countries. Combine that with the explosive growth of eSports and I saw it as a great investment." He cannot complain with his newest investment taking a liking to the eSports world as well.
Fantasy Labs Co-Founder and prominent daily fantasy player Peter Jennings recognizes the immense value that Cuban brings not just from his prominence as a celebrity investor and owner of an NBA franchise, but also because he understands the fantasy, gaming, gambling and eSports space.
"We're especially excited for how Mr. Cuban's influence on our organizational development will enable us to expand our analytics offerings into new areas like eSports games, as well as continuing to optimize our core competencies," said Jennings, who serves as a DraftKings analyst.
Fantasy Labs is available online and for Android as well as iOS devices.
Darren Heitner is a lawyer and the Founder of South Florida-based HEITNER LEGAL, P.L.L.C., which has a focus on Sports Law and Entertainment Law.
