Balancing growth and innovation is a challenge for any company, but in fantasy sports, your platform either keeps evolving or it’s forgotten.
PrizePicks, the plucky startup that sat out the first year of daily fantasy sports betting in Michigan (DFS) and was a marketplace blip for the second, has taken a commanding lead over more well-known rivals DraftKings and FanDuel, data from the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) show.
DFS operators grossed $2.1 million overall in March, up 14.8% from February ($1.8 million). Overall revenue more than doubled in a year ($989k).
Atlanta-based PrizePicks held a record 73.7% of the market in March, the most recent month with figures available. It also grossed $1.6 million, an 18.8% increase from February ($1.3 million) and up more than five-fold from the year-ago month ($235k).
March was also PrizePicks’ second-best month overall — its record month was January with $1.8 million.
The operator is popular in DFS because the platform allows bettors to place bets based on over/under predictions. The platform is legal in 30 US states plus the District of Columbia and available in Canada — excluding Ontario.
PrizePicks first bested DraftKings and FanDuel in terms of revenue in November 2022. After slipping behind DraftKings in December, the operator retook the lead in January and has held the market’s top spot since.
“Balancing growth and innovation is a challenge for any company, but in fantasy sports, your platform either keeps evolving or it’s forgotten,” PrizePicks co-founder and CTO Jay Deuskar said last week after the operator was named Fantasy Operator of the Year by EGR North America.
“The game play features and innovations we introduced in 2022 required extensive research and development and rigorous testing, but the reward came in the feedback from our members and now these prestigious industry honors.”
PrizePicks previously claimed it was North America’s largest privately-held fantasy sports operator. It dropped the “privately-held” part of that claim in April.
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DraftKings, FanDuel Left in the Dust
Meanwhile, DraftKings Sports MI and FanDuel Sports MI continued to fade in the market in March.
DraftKings was a distant second behind PrizePicks with $375k of revenue in March — enough for 17.8% of the market, a record low. Revenue was essentially flat month-over-month ($378k), but the Boston-based operator was down 22.8% year-over-year ($487k).
Even more worrisome, DraftKings just had its fourth-lowest month for revenue. It set a record high for DFS revenue in September 2020 with $1.6 million.
FanDuel saw revenue increase 14.8% month-over-month, the same as the market overall. But the $156k the Flutter brand grossed in March represented only 7.4% of the market — the same market share as February, and that’s a record low, too. FanDuel was also down 31.3% year-over-year ($227k).
March was FanDuel’s fifth-worst month for revenue. Like DraftKings, it had its best month for DFS revenue in September 2020, but with $1.2 million instead.
According to the MGCB, the three smallest DFS operators in the state — Boom Shakalaka, RealTime Fantasy Sports, and Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC) LLC — posted revenue of $18,109, $6,517, and $132 in March, respectively. The $18k mark set by Boom Shakalaka was a record for the operator.
PrizePicks Takes Commanding Lead Over MI Fantasy Sports Rivals
