December 14 – Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) operator Oulala.com has closed a second round of funding of €1.35 million from private investors.
The Maltese-based company says it will use the money to expand its white label DFS solution for clubs and gaming partners – it already works with Leicester City, Cardinal House and Orange Africa, and has expanded into South America as well.
Daily fantasy football games allow players to pick their teams and enter a virtual competition, utilising a scoring system created using historical data. In Oulala games users generally start with €100 million in virtual spending money and can choose from over 2,500 players. Users can make ‘real time’ changes to their teams to create a realistic managerial experience.
Game players compete either in head to head leagues – which can either be private or public – or they can join an existing contest from the Oulala game lobby menu. Costs of entering range from €1 and €200 with the higher the entry fee reflecting higher prize money.
In the US the DFS games have exploded into the traditional fantasy sports markets with major investment from US media and gaming operators. However, the market has slowed with attention of regulatory authorities. The two biggest companies dominating the DFS gaming business – DraftKings and FanDuel – last month merged operations.
”The DFS market is currently experiencing a consistent and rapid growth in Europe, which was confirmed by the strong interest from investors during this latest funding round,” said Benjamin Carlotti, managing director of Oulala.
Oulala had previously raised £8.5 million of funding. The new money will be used to push the company’s expansion into the business-to-business market, focussed on its European leagues product and white labelling for clubs, leagues or other brands.
To spearhead the sales process the company has hired Oliver Niner, formerly a business development manager at Marathonbet, who will take on the role of Business Development Director, and Anthony Medica, previously linked with Summit of iGaming Malta (SIGMA) and Sports Betting Community, will serve as the company’s sales director.
New partnerships are expected to be announced early 2017.
”We are very confident that DFS is poised for a solid growth next year. 2017 will be the year of Oulala,” said Carlotti.
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