1. 62 WWW.EGRMAGAZINE.COM
ONE MORE THING / EUROPEAN DFS
T
he arrival of DraftKings on the European
market should be celebrated by those
who are hoping to see substantial
growth in the daily fantasy sports (DFS)
sector in Europe. Why? Simply because
until now, no operators, including us at
Oulala, had the financial power to launch
the kind of marketing plan which could
really evangelise the market.
To anyone who would rather see no
competition in a market, I invite them to
look at the rise of DFS the US. FanDuel – the
company which invented the concept of DFS
– was launched in 2008. In 2011, after three
years of hard work, they had ‘only’ 4,000
customers in their database. However, 2011
was also the year of DraftKings’ creation.
In 2014, just three years and some healthy
competition later, FanDuel had one million
customers.
How can we explain this? FanDuel was
simply unable to “cross the chasm” alone
(Geoffrey Moore’s great theory). However,
with some healthy competition, the two firms
were able to create conditions that allowed
the market to grow exponentially.
European DFS operators are in a very similar
position to FanDuel in 2011. Just as they did, we
have proven the interest of the marketplace
for our product, but we have not yet broken
through into the mainstream market.
I have also heard some people worry that
DraftKings is now so big they will soon have a
monopoly hold over the entire European mar-
ket, leaving no space for smaller operators.
We disagree with this assessment. DraftKings
will obviously take the lead but they will also
do something that none of the other existing
DFS operators has been able to do so far:
raise the awareness of our sector.
This will also force smaller operators to be-
gin the segmentation of the market. Currently,
almost every DFS operator is targeting every
adult fan in the UK, without any focus. We
believe that segmentation will have a beneficial
effect for both the operators and the custom-
ers, as more customised offers could attract
more people from various niche markets.
To be clear, we are not saying that we wel-
come all competition. In fact, we are worried
that some small competitors may damage
the reputation of our sector by providing
games based on luck rather than skill.
But welcoming DraftKings and FanDuel is
not a naïve position. It is a pragmatic decision
based on the expectation that their arrival will
be, without any doubts, a game changer for
the future of our fledgling industry. Indeed, I
strongly believe that they will be the catalyst
for the next stage of growth in our sector. 
COMPETITION IS KEYw BENJAMIN CARLOTTI w CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, OULALA GAMES
ONEMORE
THING...
EUROPEAN DFS
“Welcoming DraftKings
and FanDuel is a
pragmatic decision based
on the expectation that
their arrival will be a
game changer”
062_EGR144_One more thing.indd 62 15/04/2016 15:26