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/