Speaking to the SBC Leaders magazine, FanDuel CEO Christian Genetski revealed the company was on the brink of no-existence back in 2017.
"After the DraftKings merger was blocked by the FTC in August of 2017, FanDuel was pretty much out of money," Genetski said in an interview dedicated to his recent Sports Betting Hall of Fame induction.
"So we had to immediately do an internal capital raise to keep the lights on and take in just enough money to say, 'we’ve gotta sell the company, merge the company, or find a path to a much bigger capital infusion in the next nine months'.
"I’m confident there are some companies, who shall remain nameless, who could have bought FanDuel outright for $350-400 million at the time that sure wish they had!
"But we were a loss-making fantasy sports business with an uncertain future. How would we ever turn it around if sports betting didn’t pass? And we didn’t even have any sports betting infrastructure."
Fast forward to today, FanDuel is leading the US gaming market, having surpassed arch-rivals DraftKings. FanDuel owns 35% of sports betting and iGaming market, as of 2023 Q4, while DraftKings' share is around 32%.
