Almost half of FanDuel NJ sports bettors were DFS customers
Operator suffers $24m in sportsbook start-up costs but will continue to invest heavily in acquisition
Almost half of FanDuel Sportsbook customers in New Jersey were acquired via the DFS database, Paddy Power Betfair revealed today.
The operator did not specify exactly how many customers it had in New Jersey, but the firm currently accounts for around 37% of the online betting market in the state.
CEO Peter Jackson confirmed that customers acquired via the DFS product were much cheaper to acquire than comparable sources.
“There’s no doubt our fantasy assets give us an advantage,” Jackson added.
He said a “significant number” of the new betting customers were lapsed DFS players who hadn’t played at all in the previous 12 months.
Jackson said PPB could afford to wait for sports betting legislation across the US as it acquired 300,000 US customers in 2018 across its DFS and TVG business.
The firm suffered $24m in sportsbook start-up costs from the US business but said it would continue to invest heavily in the short term.
“Even the players we acquire direct from the market are costing much less than expected,” said Jackson. “We expect those customers to be paying back in 6-12 months which is why we’re pushing so hard to acquire as many customers as we can.”
The new customers are also being cross-sold into the New Jersey casino app, which grew 31%cc year-on-year.
Overall US revenues grew 18% pro-forma to £191m, with an underlying EBITDA loss of £14m.