DraftKings raising another $200m, letting staff play ‘intra-company’ DFS games

The negative media onslaught over daily fantasy sports must be costing operators a fortune in legal fees, as DraftKings has reportedly gone looking for another $200m in venture capital.

On Thursday, Boston Business Journal technology editor Sara Castellanos reported that the Boston-based DraftKings was “quietly raising” an additional $200m in investor funding, suggesting that the data leak controversy hasn’t dimmed the company’s appeal in the eyes of deep-pocketed speculators.

While the round hasn’t officially closed, the extra scratch would bring total VC investment in DraftKings to around $630m, according to research firm PitchBook. That would put DraftKings’ valuation somewhere in the $2b range, having already achieved so-called ‘unicorn’ status following its $300m funding round this summer.

Castellanos reported that DraftKings CEO Jason Robins gave a keynote speech at an awards ceremony in Boston on Wednesday at which he claimed his company had raised over $500m to date, higher than the $426m the company has previously cited. A DraftKings spokesman later said the company hadn’t raised more money than it had disclosed following this summer’s funding round.