A recent article by Forbes is just another indication of the growing popularity of Fantasy Leagues and given financing by major American players is further proof it is in a different category of gambling sites.

The Daily Fantasy sports industry industry is a bustling business, with a variety of companies in the growing space.  A few of the most well known companies in that sector are DraftDay, Draftstreet and FanDuel.  The latter is the industry leader (with roughly 60% of the market share) and just separated itself even further from the competition with the announcement of a new round of financing in the amount of $11 million.

The $11 million Series C financing for FanDuel was closed with a brand new investor in Comcast Ventures (the venture capital affiliate of Comcast Corporation), along with existing investors Piton Capital, Pentech Ventures, Bullpen Capital and serial investor Richard Koch.  In addition to establishing an equity interest in FanDuel, Comcast Ventures will have its partner, Andrew Cleland, join FanDuel’s board of directors.

“FanDuel has done an exceptional job in establishing itself as the leading player in the next generation of fantasy sports,” said Cleland.  ”We see a clear opportunity to introduce the game to a broader set of sports fans and I’m excited to begin working with the company.”

In 2011, FanDuel paid out $10 million in winnings to its users.  Last year, the payout grew to a total of $50 million.  During this past NFL season, FanDuel was paying out approximately $2 million per week.  Now that the season has concluded, the average weekly payout has dropped roughly $500,000, but it is expected to rebound again once the 2013 MLB season begins.

FanDuel will use some of the funds from its latest round of financing to grow its teams in New York and Edinburgh.  ”Our team has grown from 20 to 40 people in the last 12 months,” explained Lesley Eccles, Co-Founder and Marketing Director at FanDuel to Forbes.com.  ”We plan to expand that even further to deal with the growing demand for FanDuel.”

The daily fantasy sports site also intends on introducing new features to its daily fantasy games, which last 1 day and pay out prizes to participators as soon as games finish.  Those games are currently experiencing an average of over 250,000 line-up entries per week.

FULL ARTICLE:  :  http://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2013/01/30/fantasy-sports-service-fanduel-secures-11-million-investment-includes-money-from-comcast-ventures/

Fantasy football drafts for the recent NFL season may be an indication of where this industry is headed.  The intense competition amongst friends, colleagues and strangers has grown into a lucrative business, generating profits in excess of $1 billion through cable deals, advertisements, draft guides, buy-in fees and various endorsements.

Fantasy football has been around since 1962, becoming more popular in the 1980s and 1990s before booming with the growth of the internet over the last 10 years.  The soaring number of participants and growing profitability of fantasy football is leading some to say the industry is “recession-proof.”

“Our recent survey says we gained another 2 million players from last year,” said Paul Charchian, Fantasy Sports Trade Association President.  “The numbers keep growing and it’s a pace we’ve been keeping up for years.”

A recent report from Fantasy Sports Trade Association estimates 75% of the 34 million fantasy sports participants will be fantasy football owners this year.

Fantasy football participants draft and manage a team of players throughout the NFL season. Each week, managers can shuffle their starting lineup and shake up rosters in attempt to form the strongest team for the week’s matchup.  Hurt players will be benched and the week’s underperformers can be used as backups. Specific rules vary by league, but generally speaking each participant selects position players, a defensive team and one kicker.

While the average fantasy football participant is in their mid-30s, teenagers are fueling the industry’s recent growth.

“A lot of fantasy football’s growth is coming from the younger generation,” said Charchian.  “Parents are playing with their kids. The growth is happening organically. We’re not targeting a specific demographic; rather it’s what families want to happen in their living rooms on Sundays.”

And fantasy football is changing the way fans watch the sport, prompting cable-TV providers to strike pricey deals.  Specific programming such as NFL RedZone is significantly benefiting from the booming industry.

“[NFL RedZone] is crack for fantasy players,” said Charchian.  “The NFL RedZone channel is specifically targeting us, the fantasy crowd.  It’s a huge program.”

NFL RedZone airs on Sunday afternoons and alternates between the league’s games, showing plays only when teams go inside the 20-yard line.

In late 2012, Cablevision reached an agreement to carry the NFL Network. SNL Kagan estimates the NFL Network charges a carriage fee of 81 cents per-subscriber, per-month, making it the fourth most expensive national cable channel.

And cable companies aren’t the only businesses looking to cash in on fantasy fans.  Small businesses nationwide are profiting from participants quests to financially protect their prized rosters.  FantasyDispute.com claims to resolve fantasy sports disagreements for $14.95.  The firm pledges to keep the integrity of each fantasy league at the highest degree.

Other firms like Fantasy Sports Insurance (FSI) provide disability coverage on star players, financially protecting fantasy managers when players suffer “season changing” injuries.  FSI vows to reimburse participants of all expenditures associated with fielding a fantasy team, and calculates its costs at a 10% rate of the insured value plus fees.

However, not all firms benefit from the hours spent fielding players and analyzing injuries.  A report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimates the nation’s more than 22 million employed fantasy football participants may be costing employers up to $6.5 billion this year. The outplacement firm reached its figure by estimating each fantasy football manager will spend one hour at work every week on their teams during a 15-week season.

Shares of gambling stocks and mobile gaming stocks have been trending upwards in recent weeks after the two largest gambling states in the U.S. — Nevada and New Jersey — announced the legalization of online gambling.

Although the state of Nevada has a population of less than 3 million people, the bill allows the state to enter into deals with other states with larger populations. The Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett has stated that he has already received roughly 20 license applications for online gambling. According to American Gaming Association across the world approximately $35 billion is wagered online each year.

“The potential agreements to pool players between states as contemplated by the Nevada bill can likely be attributed to similar practices in the lottery industry, such as Powerball,” Fitch Ratings wrote in a recent report.

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Shuffle Master operates in legalized gaming markets across the globe and provides state-of-the-art, value-add products in five distinct categories: Utility products, Proprietary Table Games, Electronic Table Systems, Electronic Gaming Machines and newly introduced Shuffle Interactive, which features online versions of Shuffle Master’s table games, social gaming, and mobile applications.

WMS Industries’ subsidiary, Williams Interactive LLC, has recently signed an online content licensing agreement with Sky Betting & Gaming, the online betting and gaming division of UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB Group. The company has also signed an online gaming agreement with Malta-based Bonnier Gaming.

Ontario is looking into rolling the dice on “Online betting” as British Columbia, the United States and other jurisdictions clear the decks for legalized online gaming.

“At this point it’s something we can’t ignore,” a government official told the Star Friday. “It’s something that we’re exploring.”

While it’s not clear how soon Ontarians could be playing Texas Hold ‘Em poker, roulette or baccarat on their computer keyboards through a provincially run website, the government is studying the situation. Some experts estimate online gambling is growing at a rate of 20 per cent annually.

The policy signal comes just months after Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation chairman Paul Godfrey, on his first day on the job in February, said it’s time the province took a look at online gambling.

“Money is going out of this province to other provinces as well as offshore sites,” warned Godfrey, who was brought in by Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government to put the scandal-plagued lottery corporation on a solid footing.

At the time, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said it was too early to say whether Internet gambling was in the cards for Ontario – which is fighting a $19.7-billion deficit this year as the Liberal government approaches a re-election fight in October 2011.

But the tide on Internet gambling appears to be turning around the world, with governments softening their views on outright bans in favour of regulating and profiting from gambling that is already taking place under their noses.

British Columbia, for example, estimated in July that its residents are spending $100 million a year on offshore gambling websites. B.C. became the first province or state in North America to offer legalized online casino gambling. The proceeds from its site www.playnow.com, which launched last month, go to services like health care and education.

Quebec and the Atlantic provinces have also expressed interest in following suit.

“We’re noticing it is happening and it’s slowly turning our heads,” the government official added Friday, noting the developmental work is up to Crown-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming.

OLG took in $1.9 billion last year—an important source of revenue for the cash-strapped government—but has been losing market share to offshore betting sites.

The lottery corporation deferred to its political masters when contacted Friday, saying it has nothing more to say than Godfrey’s pronouncement in February.

“We are always exploring new and innovative business lines, including Internet gaming,” a spokesman said.

“Like all gaming jurisdictions in Canada, we are closely watching what is happening in B.C., and elsewhere in Canada, for that matter.”

But any moves to legalize online gaming will have to overcome concerns from groups concerned about problem gambling, given that many believe Internet betting is more fraught with peril for addicts than going to a casino.

That’s because of the high speed and instant gratification from online gambling, which can be done at home with a high level of privacy.

The U.S., a huge market estimated at $5.4 billion last year, is on the cusp of ending a four-year ban on Internet gambling—an industry estimated at $20 billion worldwide.

The fact is that in jurisdictions where Internet gambling is illegal, millions of people go to gaming websites domiciled in other countries.

That means cash is leaving jurisdictions such as Ontario and the U.S. while governments have no control over the gambling web sites. That has prompted some advocates to argue it’s better to gain control—and scoop up more revenue—by legalizing the activity and getting a piece of the action.

As the law now stands in Canada, the federal criminal code would allow internet gaming only if operated by a province or its delegate, such as OLG.

McGuinty has long said that “in a perfect world” Ontario would not have to rely on gambling revenue at all and has acknowledged the government needs the cash.

His most recent comments on online gaming came late last month when he told reporters: “I know B.C.’s gone there; Quebec’s gone there. And I’ll wait for the advice of the Minister of Finance on that.”

A Liberal source said Internet gambling could be structured to drive business to OLG’s struggling casinos by awarding credits to players for use in casinos, along with the lottery corporation’s hotels and restaurants.