Exclusive: US sports veterans add financial muscle to PrizePicks DFS platform
Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan and Hawks forward John Collins join ex-FanDuel executive Adam Kaplan in high profile investment round for Atlanta-based DFS operator
Atlanta-based fantasy sports operator PrizePicks has closed its latest strategic funding round, netting high profile financial support from NFL stars, igaming executives and former NFL players.
Latest financial backers include Atlanta Falcons NFL quarterback Matt Ryan and NBA forward John Collins, who plays for the Atlanta Hawks basketball franchise.
Other prominent investors include former head of FOX Sports Digital and Yahoo! Sports David Katz, retired NFL player and partner at Next Play Capital Hunter Hillenmeyer, as well as former NFL executive Vishal Shah.
Representing the sports betting and igaming industries are Bet.Works founder Quinton Singleton and former FanDuel executive and COO of SportsGrid Adam Kaplan.
The new round also adds investments from emerging influencer partners Kenny “KOT4Q” Beecham (YouTube) and podcast host of The BrilliantlyDumb Show, Robby Berger.
In addition to returning investor Phoenix Capital Ventures, gaming VC fund Astralis Capital and sports and entertainment group The Players Impact have also invested in the PrizePicks business.
Rounding out the investment partners in this latest round is ThePostGame co-founder and CEO Eric Herd.
Previous PrizePicks funding rounds have attracted support from poker Hall of Famers Phil Hellmuth and Jack McLelland and former NBA champion Andrew Bogut.
The exact amount of funding received as part of this round has not been disclosed.
However, PrizePicks has revealed that funding will be used to “ramp up” marketing spend and for investment in its proprietary technology platform.
The first US operator of Single Player Fantasy (SPF), PrizePicks recently hit the milestone of paying out over $100m in winnings to its members over the past 12 months, leveraging heavily on customer acquisition to enhance its database.
To date, the company has primarily utilized debt financing to take advantage of its incredibly fast customer acquisition payback periods.
In the past year, PrizePicks has seen ten-fold increases in both its active member base and gross gaming revenue.
PrizePicks CEO Adam Wexler highlighted the firm’s increasing profits when compared to its more traditional DFS rivals, like DraftKings, which has seen its stock price tumble in recent months.
“Unlike many of the fantasy and betting operators, PrizePicks was profitable year-to-date ahead of football season, and we wanted to make the most of our top revenue market, the NBA, converging with our second most popular, the NFL,” said Wexler.
“We experienced very attractive customer acquisition costs this fall advertising across new channels such as linear TV and OTT.
“With four years of marketing experience across a variety of acquisition channels, we look forward to entertaining a major funding round in the early part of 2022,” he added.