Yahoo! Is Now in the Daily Fantasy Business

You didn’t seriously expect Yahoo Sports to ignore the daily fantasy boom, did you?

That’s the first line of Yahoo!’s introduction to their newly-announced daily fantasy offering. It’s bluntness leans on the cute side, but it’s now without merit. Daily fantasy sports (DFS) seem to be exploding in popularity, and the funding numbers certainly back that up.

Yahoo! is going up against two well-established DFS platforms — FanDuel and DraftKings. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses, but what they both possess is strong market saturation. FanDuel, especially, has been making a huge push in partnerships of late, teaming up with both Major League Baseball and NASCAR. And it’s become increasingly difficult to watch any kind of sporting event without seeing commercials for either DraftKings or FanDuel. Yahoo! has an uphill climb ahead of them if they plan on making a big dent in the DFS market. But they do have a few aces up their sleeve.

Their first advantage is that that are already a huge player in the fantasy sports market. It’s true that their reputation has taken some hits as of late, but they’re still one of the big providers. Millions of traditional fantasy players are already visiting Yahoo! on a frequent basis. All Yahoo! has to do is entice them to give DFS a try (or seven). Whereas FanDuel or DraftKings have to either pay for advertising or enter in partnerships if they want exposure on the popular fantasy sites. Yahoo! has it all baked right in. They just have to convince people it’s worth a shot.

While it hasn’t been up long enough to do a full review, a quick glance at the new DFS site shows a nice, clean interface. The nuts and bolts of it work much like DraftKings or FanDuel, but Yahoo! is taking a different approach with their salary caps. Instead of working within a $50,000 cap, Yahoo! works within a $200 limit. Of course, everything is prorated. Instead of dropping $9,500 on a top-notch player, Yahoo! users would spend something like $60 within their lower cap limit. This is most likely a stab at simplicity — making the the financials easier to manage across a whole roster. It’s a novel idea, one that separates them from the rest of the field. We’ll have to see how it plays out as the season goes on.

The first game of the NFL season comes on September 10th. The second half of the baseball season is clearly the proving grounds for Yahoo!’s new platform — a time to iron out all the bugs before the real money starts rolling in. Whether it works or not, you have to give Yahoo! credit for trying. DFS is eating into their user base and they’re making a move to try and stop the bleeding. Perhaps they can leverage their place in the market into some higher revenues. They certainly have the foothold. Being valued at $40 billion probably doesn’t hurt, either.