Daily fantasy sports platform PrizePicks has closed a strategic round of equity funding, lauding the founding team from Poker Central and PokerGo as the “latest poker luminaries to recognize the synergy between poker and DFS”.
In a busy week for the DFS space, following Bally’s Corporation unveiling a deal to acquire Monkey Knife Fight and Caesars making a strategic investment in SuperDraft, funds gained by PrizePicks will be used to increase staffing, grow the executive team and platform innovation which it’s said will include several patents.
“Our cap table has become a final table,” Adam Wexler PrizePicks CEO, said. “We couldn’t be more confident in the way we’re positioned strategically for 2021 and beyond, and that’s in large part due to how we’ve chosen to align with a diverse set of equity investors rather than a strict venture financing path.
“This gives us a lot of flexibility for the future should we choose to expand our brand beyond DFS as FanDuel and DraftKings have.
“The alignment with the poker industry and these stellar investors will benefit both sides in both the short term and the long should we move into areas such as sports betting and icasino.”
Joining the poker coalition in this latest round of financing is NBA champion-turned-entrepreneur Andrew Bogut, previous investors such as Phoenix Capital Ventures and Parlay Capital Holdings and a venture firm affiliated with Magic City Casino, a south Florida casino operator.
They join a list of PrizePicks investors that includes Phil Hellmuth and Jack McLelland, popular streamer Jeff Gross and Brian Balsbaugh, founder of Poker Royalty, the first management agency for poker players.
“While sports fans are overly focused on the public companies in this category, it’s the emerging groups doing things a bit differently who can shake things up and win over time,” said Bogut.
“It reminds me of how we built it in Golden State – smart, strategic moves to build a highly complementary group who could reinvent the way championships are achieved.”
