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John Oliver lampoons Northern Irish entrepreneur's fantasy sports site

FanDuel, a company founded six years ago by Northern Irishman, Nigel Eccles has come to domi...



John Oliver lampoons Northern...
Golf

John Oliver lampoons Northern Irish entrepreneur's fantasy sports site

FanDuel, a company founded six years ago by Northern Irishman, Nigel Eccles has come to dominate the rapidly-growing one-day fantasy sports market in the United States.

Along with its main competitor Draft Kings, the company has been falling foul of some regulators in the US. In states where gambling is illegal users can compete in one-day games and tournaments on the site - paying to enter and receiving cash if they win.

Fan Duel's last round of funding raised the company's valuation to $1.3 billion.

The companies argue that these are "games of skill" - not gambling operations.

John Oliver's HBO satirical news show Last Week Tonight dedicated almost 20 minutes of this week's episode to picking this argument apart.

The British comedian described these apps as, “the most addictive thing that you can do on your phone, other than perhaps cocaine.”

At one point between the two companies they were running an advertisement on national TV in the US once every 90 seconds. They also have commercial relationships with the NBA, MLB and 28 of the 32 NFL franchises across the country.

Malcolm Moore, Leisure Industry Correspondent with the Financial Times joined Vincent Wall on Breakfast Business in July, to discuss the rise of the industry - he described daily fantasy as a "proxy for gambling."

He continued: "A lot of people who are playing this aren't necessarily sports fans, if you speak to FanDuel they are very careful to say that there is a great tradition of fantasy sports in the US.

"One of the things that has lead US sports teams to invest in FanDuel is that they say that it deepens fans' engagement with the sport."

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