StakeKings, the world’s largest sports crowdfunding marketplace, joins forces with RotoGrinders to launch fantasy sports staking, and Lee Davy sits down with StakeKings founder, Tyler Hancock to get the lowdown.
The car is due for an MOT. The dashboard resembles the spaceship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The screech of the windscreen wipers is about to lead to a murderous road rage style rampage. The tires are as deflated as my life when I think about driving to the garage.
Can I trust them? Do they care about quality? Will they treat me like a Demigod? Will they hang those nauseous Christmas tree air fresheners on the rearview mirror?
I don’t have time for that.
I ask a friend, who asks a friend, and then I pick one. It’s the same with my choice of surgeon, dentist and double glazing salesman. I don’t have time to create a tick list and start ticking. I don’t have time to do anything.
It’s the same with Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS).
I’ve loved sports from the moment I left the pram. DFS is a great pastime. Learning that people make millions playing this form of entertainment, makes it more absorbing.
But, I don’t have time.
Here’s where StakeKings come into the crossword puzzle as the answer to the question ‘ “How do I get involved in the buzz of DFS if I don’t have time?”
StakeKings formed in 2016, as a trusted way to allow the poker community to buy pieces of action from professional poker players. Today, they are the most significant sports crowdfunding marketplace in the world thanks in part to the involvement of stellar pros such as Antonio Esfandiari, Brian Rast and Jeff Gross.
In the past two years, the StakeKings marketplace has handled $10m in sales, with zero rates of malice or misappropriation. It works, and anyone can be involved with the functionality to invest as little as a buck. What’s more – payout rates are faster than an old-school barber removing fluff with a razor blade, with an average of 3.28 hours per payout.
When you consider, the volatility of the poker industry when it comes to the levels of trust, even at the highest levels in the game, what StakeKings has done is revolutionary.
First Poker, Next Fantasy Sports
According to statistics available on DraftKings.com, over the past 30-days, only 11% of DFS players made a profit. Roughly the same amount broke even. 80% ended up with nothing but a landlord screaming for rent.
So, how do you become one of the 11%?
Time.
Dedication.
Skill.
Grit.
Or, you could stake in one of those players and let them do the hard work for you?
With immediate effect, StakeKings will introduce a Fantasy Sports vertical on the site that will include both Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) and Season Long Fantasy Sports packages from some of the best pros in the world.
Here is StakeKings Founder, Tyler Hancock, to tell you more:
What are the primary differences between the fantasy sports customer and the poker customer?
“There is quite a bit of overlap between these customers. Most DFS players are familiar with poker, and most poker players are familiar with DFS. The small difference would be from the pro side. Although the selling of action is widespread in the poker world, the concept is less popular in the world of DFS when it comes to the use of markup. There will be a learning curve, but we have partnered with RotoGrinders.com (the largest daily fantasy sports community in the world) to assist us with providing as much information to the Fantasy Sports community as we possibly can.”
Do you have to market the two differently?
“There is a different demographic – with some overlap, but the way in which we are going to execute on our marketing plan is very similar to what we have been able to do in poker. Our partnership with RotoGrinders.com will also lead to a lot of exciting things.”
Do you have to change your product for DFS customers, or do you use the poker template?
“The flexibility of our new platform allows us to sell DFS packages, without making too many changes. We have added a segregated Fantasy Sports marketplace so that users on the site can more easily select which vertical they are looking to purchase action in, and from which pros. Moving forward we will make the user interface & user experience even better, and we will continue to listen to our user’s feedback as we grow.”
Why incorporate DFS now?
“We have been discussing other potential verticals internally since the beginning and decided on Fantasy Sports after a lot of discussions with elite DFS pros as well as the RotoGrinders team. We are excited to bring an entertaining and safe staking experience to the Fantasy Sports industry, and believe that it will ultimately be a big hit. Also, with our new platform launching at the beginning of January, it seemed like the perfect time to expand the offerings in the SK Marketplace to new, but similar markets.”
Why should DFS customers use StakeKings and not one of your competitors?
“StakeKings is the leader in the industry when it comes to a poker crowdfunding marketplace, and based purely on actual data – there is no one close at this time. We have worked tirelessly to create a safe, fun and trusted platform that has helped bring fan engagement within poker to a new level, and we are looking to do the same for Fantasy Sports.
“The pros who sell on our platform are thoroughly vetted before allowing them to use our software, as we want to provide our users and pros with the best overall experience. Since our inception, StakeKings has sold over 40,000 packages, nearly $10 million in total marketplace sales, and 100% of those packages sold in our marketplace were paid out without any issues from our pros. As someone who has been in and around poker staking for 15 yrs – if you were to take data from buying/selling action outside of StakeKings – the scam rates from pros not paying backers over a 32,000+ package sample size would be far from perfect.
“Our goal is to continue providing an entertainment based platform focused on user-protection, transparency, and overall efficiency for both the pros and our users.”
