By Paul Nicholson
January 14 – This week the first paid Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) games made their Atlantic crossing from the US, debuting in the Italian market. Boston-based gambling firm Mondogoal have launched their football games in partnership with Italian online sports betting platform Intralot.
Mondogoal CEO and founder Shergul Arshad said: “We are excited to continue toward our vision as the largest global daily fantasy company by launching Mondogoal in Italy. Italian users will now have an enhanced gaming experience similar to our users in the UK and the United States.
“Intralot is the first of our deals with online sports betting sites overseas. Unlike others who talk about integration, we have been heads down executing on this integration. As a Serie A fan and fan of Fantasy Soccer for 25 years, I hope many legions of fantasy soccer fans in Italy can now share in the vision and play fun and for cash.”
Mondogoal is already operational in Europe with daily and match-day fantasy football games covering Serie A, the Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, Champions League, Europa League, and the Brasileirao, among others. It will now offer a cash-prize DFS extension to the games.
The company holds a UK gaming license and already partners or works with Chelsea, West ham and Spurs in the English Premier League, Barcelona and Valencia in Spain’s La Liga, and Roma in Italy’s Serie A.
Game players pick a starting 11 and compete in either a Head-to-Head battle or Multi-User-Tournaments. Points are awarded for a variety of measurable actions including goals, assists, tackles won or lost, shots on goal, passes completed, and clean sheets.
DFS is a breakthough gaming product and is pretty much unregulated, as the New York lawsuit against DraftKings and FanDuel is proving. Currently a ruling is awaited over whether the games are skill or chance based. The operators say they should not be treated as a gambling product as they are skill-based, the NY prosecutors disagree but a stay has been granted to allow operators to keep playing while the court rules.
In Europe DFS is in its infancy, but it does represent a major new opportunity for gaming companies and potentially for the more forward/faster moving clubs and leagues. Where DFS sits in the regulatory framework is still to be worked.
The fear – and to a degree a fear that has been proven in the US with a high profile prosecution in the US – is that non-matchday fantasy games can be manipulated by the operators or company insiders who know the game algorthymns.
Mondogoal is early into the European market and the first operator with DFS games partnered with an Italian gaming company. But the company does not have the European market to itself. In October last year Malta-based daily fantasy football platform Oulala.com launched its first English language cash game and in November secured its first partnership with a Premier League club becoming the Official Fantasy Football Partner of high flying Leicester City.
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