DraftKings And FanDuel Abandon Fantasy Sports Merger DraftKings and FanDuel abandon fantasy sports merger 13 July 2017 Fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel have deserted a plan to merge, less than a month after US competition regulators sought to obstruct the deal. The deal would have created a company with control over 90% of the marketplace for paid, everyday fantasy sports contests, government officials said. The companies said the deal would cause greater investment, supplying advantages for customers. They said they would now seek to grow independently. FanDuel started in Scotland in 2009 and is now based in New york city. It is number 2 in the US for paid daily dream sports contests behind DraftKings, which began in Boston in 2012. Fantasy sport firm FanDuel cautions of threat from US regulations The two companies specialise in a subset of dream sports, in which fans choose gamers to create teams for single games, rather of the season, with the potential to win cash prizes based upon the result. In November, they stated they had accepted merge. Terms were not divulged. At the time, they said the offer would permit them to combine forces on regulatory concerns raised by US regulators, who had compared the industry to prohibited gaming and prohibited the sites in some states. Nigel Eccles, head of FanDuel, stated it made good sense to move forward independently. "There is still huge, untapped market chance for FanDuel, and we will continue to perform our technique to grow our company and more broaden the fantasy sports industry," he stated in a declaration. Draft Kings president Jason Robbins also said terminating the merger would allow the firm to "singularly focus" on development, consisting of globally. Last year there were an approximated 57 million dream sports players in the US alone.