December 7 – The Daily Fantasy Sports sectoris alive and well, was the message coming out of the Summit of iGaming Malta (SiGMA) session on the fantasy gaming sector.
Hampus Hagglof, CEO for FSport AB, illustrated a sector in far better health than the press reports with “North America enjoying almost 60 million players, five million players playing fantasy premier league—a scoring system that’s well established, and Indian companies claiming to have more than 40 million users, cricket being the main objective”.
He also said that more than 4,200 people are employed in the fantasy sports business worldwide.
DraftKings’ CIO, Jeffrey Haas (pictured), reported similarly: ‘’With the Premier League enjoying a whopping seven and a half million plus players in Europe, substantial growth can be seen with the emergence of fantasy products provided by the leagues themselves, apart from the independent B2C operators.’’
Haas said that with market penetration of DFS in Europe low and only available in a few markets, that was where the major growth opportunity lay.
But DFS still face challenges. Marco Castaldo, General Manager of Microgame saw the biggest one being where DFS fits into the regulated gambling sphere, creating access barriers for players. “We need to connect the traditional fantasy football customer base, or at least a section of it, with the regulated gambling customer base, and that requires tailoring the product to some extent, which is what we’re working to achieve,” he said.
James Camilleri, Head of Sales and General Manager at Scout Gaming Group, reckoned that “Having a simpler game will drive more users to fantasy sports. This is working in Spain, where people are hooked on playing and socialising with their peers.”
Filletti, Head of Operations and Business Development at GamingMalta, said: “The summit is proof that the DFS sector is still very much alive, and I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to host key leadership in the fantasy sports sector.” SiGMA 2018 saw a record-breaking 12,500 attendees from over 80 countries.
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