Careers at Draftkings
Mission
DraftKings’ mission is to be the leading provider of fantasy sport and to bring the fans closer to the game than ever before.
History
DraftKings was founded in 2012 by three creative and talented individuals; acting CEO Jason Robbins, current CRO Matt Kalish, and current CMO Paul Liberman, all former executives of VistaPrint.
At the early stages of the Company’s start-up, DraftKings operated out of Paul Liberman’s residence in Boston but has since then expanded beyond the small residence and established its main offices at 225 Franklin Street, Boston, Massachusetts. DraftKings also has branch offices in New York and London and has an employee base of more than 350 employees.
The very first project that the Company undertook was the development of a baseball competition that was set to launch on the same day as the kickoff of the Major League Baseball in 2012. In July of the same year, DraftKings received its first external funding of $1.5 million from Accomplice. Accomplice is venture capitalist firm that invests mainly in technology and can be located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In April 2013, Major League Baseball purchased stakes in DraftKings, making the Company’s site MLB’s official fantasy sport platform. The purchase also made history by making DraftKings the first fantasy sports company to have a professional sports organization invest in it. In 2013, in its Series B funding, DraftKings received $24 million from Accomplice, Redpoint Ventures, Jordan Mendell, and GGV Capital.
By February 2014, DraftKings had already given players over $50 million in prizes won from fantasy baseball, basketball, hockey, and football. The Company was then declared the second-largest sports fantasy company in the Fantasy Sports Industry. Shortly after that, DraftKings acquired DraftStreet, the third largest sports fantasy company at the time, impressively increasing their user base and subsequent market share. The Company caters to 50,000 daily fantasy sport players and more than 1,000,000 registered players.
In August 2014, Draftkings received $41 million from The Raine Group alongside prior investors, GGV Capital and Redpoint Ventures. Before the end of 2014, DraftKings had entered into a long-term contract with the National Hockey League, which granted the Company with exclusive rights to the League’s intellectual property, instantly making DraftKings a monopoly in fantasy hockey.
In April of 2015, DraftKings entered into another long-term contract, this time with Major League Baseball that made baseball the official fantasy sport of the Company. By August of the same year, DraftKings finally acquired a license to operate in the UK and commenced UK operations later in February of 2016.