Nigel Eccles invests in Latam-facing DFS app
Co-founder of FanDuel becomes chairman of Mexico-headquartered fantasy operator ahead of formal launch
FanDuel co-founder Nigel Eccles has joined a number of investors in Mexico-based daily fantasy sports (DFS) app Draftea which has just completed a $13.2m seed-funding round.
The industry veteran, who unveiled decentralized betting exchange, BetDEX, in October, has become chairman of the DFS start-up.
In a post on LinkedIn, Eccles said he was “super excited” to be involved with Draftea and suggested 2022 would be an “epic” year for the firm.
The socially geared DFS app, which charges players to draft a team and compete for daily prizes, is expected to launch during Q1 2022 and is currently in its beta-testing phase.
It will initially offer DFS play on Mexican soccer matches but has ambitions to expand this to more sports both in the country and internationally.
Draftea, which has 34 employees, plans to double in size in the coming months in all areas following the seed funding.
Other participants in the capital raise include Latam-targeting venture capital fund Kaszek, California-based VC fund Sequoia Capital and Bullpen Capital whose managing partner Paul Martino suggested the app could become the “FanDuel for Spanish-speaking Latin America”.
“We have great confidence in this rockstar team that they will execute on their ambitious vision,” Martino wrote in a blog post.
Bullpen was one of a number of VC funds to invest in FanDuel in 2012 despite regulatory uncertainty surrounding the firm at the time.
“In many ways, this is a classic Bullpen contrarian investment. We’ve made 10+ investments in sports betting and fantasy sports gaming play, and we are accessing a market that others have found difficult and uncertain,” Martino continued.
“However, in other ways, this is atypical for our fund.
“Draftea is a blue blood-backed company in a $13.2 million seed round – a round we normally avoid. What Bullpen continues to show is a willingness to find overlooked founders, geographies, and sectors to find the next great company,” he added.
The app is the brainchild of founder and former Stanford-graduate Alán Jaime Misrahi, who lauded the potential of the app to expand into the emerging Latam sports market, particularly in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which takes place in November.
In comments reported by technology news site TechCrunch, Misrahi said: “Our goal is to, by then, have an amazing product, have launched in many countries in Latin America, and to have hundreds, if not thousands or millions of users engaged with our platform.
“When you think of a region where football is almost a religion, where people gather for sports-related activities, where stadiums are full, where people enjoy [sport] as a family tradition, where people are in various WhatsApp groups talking about sports and fantasy, we want to unite all that,” he added.
Draftea’s executive team consists of former EA Sports executive Andreas Assad, who serves as head of operations and Joe Cohen, head of technology, as well as Alejandra Lascurain, head of product, and Miguel Gutiérrez-Barquín, who is in charge of marketing.