Stoke-on-Trent
bet365
The largest privately held operator, and the company that made in-play betting the centre of the sportsbook.
DraftKings
The American operator that converted a daily fantasy sports audience into one of the two leading sportsbooks.
What the company does
DraftKings began in 2012 as a daily fantasy sports company, a product that operated outside gambling regulation in most American states on the argument that it was a game of skill. When the federal prohibition on sports wagering ended in 2018, it already held a database of several million customers who followed sport closely and were accustomed to depositing money, which is the single largest advantage any new sportsbook can have.
The company has since added online casino, acquired the online arm of Golden Nugget and the lottery courier business Jackpocket, and built its own technology stack after initially licensing a platform. Its state-by-state expansion follows legislation rather than strategy: each new state is a separate licence, a separate tax rate and a separate launch.
DraftKings and FanDuel together hold a large majority of the American online sports betting market, which makes the United States unusually concentrated compared with European markets of similar size.
Where this sits in the supply chain
The companies that hold the relationship with the player: they take the stake, hold the account, pay the winnings and carry the licence in each market they serve. Almost everything else in this directory exists to supply them.
Questions about DraftKings
Also in operators
Stockholm and Malta
Betsson
A Nordic multi-brand operator with one of the longest corporate histories in the sector.
London and the Isle of Man
Entain
A multi-brand operator group built by acquisition, and half-owner of BetMGM in the United States.
London and Gibraltar
evoke
The renamed 888 Holdings, which acquired William Hill's non-American business and now operates both brands.
Dublin
Flutter Entertainment
The largest operator group in the industry, assembled through mergers and built around FanDuel in the United States.
Stockholm and Malta
Kindred Group
The group behind Unibet, acquired by the French state-controlled lottery operator in a landmark cross-sector deal.