The fantasy esports landscape is about to change in a big way.
Fantasy sports titan DraftKings, which awarded over $1 billion in prize money in daily fantasy leagues for sports like football last year, is introducing its own fantasy esports product, bringing competition to popular esports startups like Vulcun and Alphadraft.
Daily fantasy leagues allow players to compete in a new competition every single day, winning money based off their ability to pick a team of the day’s top performing players. With new contests open daily, and with a variety of entrance fees and prizes, it lets players commit to fantasy at their own pace.
While DraftKings has yet to reveal details on when its product will go live and what games it’ll feature, they showed off details for scoring in League of Legends, which hosts its World Championship next month.
Scoring follows similarly to other popular leagues like Vulcun, where players score points based off their kills, assists, deaths, and creep score, with a twist: Players get a bonus if they win a best-of series early, scoring points for every game they don’t have to play.
DraftKings has the potential to change the fantasy esports landscape. Companies like Vulcun and Alphadraft, esports startups that have already received millions in funding, are puny compared to the weight of one of fantasy sports’ giants. Vulcun received over $10 million in seed money over the last year. DraftKings announced $300 million in funding in July.
It already offers features that puts it ahead of the pack, like a mobile app that lets you play on the go. It’s also hinted at plans to launch DraftKings HUD in the vein of its Playbook, a website dedicated to providing fantasy sports advice.
Screengrab via DraftKings TV/YouTube
