Euroleague Basketball announced a new partnership this week which saw DraftKings become the Official Fantasy Partner for the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
DraftKings will bring its expertise on board in order to help the EuroLeague Fantasy Challenge undergo a makeover and offer fans several new fantasy games and opportunities in both the EuroLeague and 7DAYS EuroCup.
DraftKings is of course well versed as a basketball league partner, as it has been a major partner of the NBA for some time and this is one of the main sports in which the company built its brand and following in the States. The company, which launched in the UK in 2016, plans to develop a variety of fantasy products based on the EuroLeague, offering games with the most diverse and up-to-date features on the market for the upcoming 2017-18 season.
DraftKings has collaborated on daily fantasy sports products with an array of professional leagues, including Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, NASCAR and the Canadian Football League. It also offers some limited esports options in the form of League of Legends.
Jeffrey Haas, Chief International Officer at DraftKings told SBC News: “We are delighted to be partnering with Euroleague Basketball. They are an exceptional organisation with a massive passionate fan base, and ambitious plans for growth. We’re going to do some very exciting things together. Stay tuned for more news in October, as we’ll share more before the next season starts.”
This is some great news for DraftKings at a complicated time. The proposed merger between DraftKings with the world’s other largest DFS company FanDuel hit some rocks recently as the US Federal Trade Commission moved to block it. This was based on concerns that a merger would mean ‘that the combined firm would control more than 90% of the U.S. market for paid daily fantasy sports contests.’ You can read this story in full here.
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said at the time: “We are disappointed by this decision and continue to believe that a merger is in the best interests of our players, our companies, our employees and the fantasy sports industry. We are considering all our options at this time.”