The 12 Biggest Poker Stories of 2014: #10 The Rise of DFS

Well, hello there Daily Fantasy Sports, where did you come from?

The Daily Fantasy Sports or DFS industry has been around since 2006, when the industry sprang into being ostensibly to fill the void left by the passage of UIGEA, but the industry only started to gain attention outside of a small following in 2013.

The successes achieved in 2013 (spurred on mainly through the raising of investment capital) led to what can best be termed as a mini-explosion in 2014, as DFS sites turned that investment capital into a marketing campaign for the ages that brought a new level of exposure to the burgeoning industry.

Conventional print, online, radio, and TV ads were just the beginning of the push, as the two biggest DFS sites, FanDuel and DraftKings, played round after round of “anything you can do I can do better, I can do anything better than you,” inking partnership and sponsorship deals with sports leagues, teams, and professional athletes.