Daily fantasy sports (DFS) giant DraftKings has received approval to expand its operations into the northern part of Australia. It’s a big move for the operator that opens its services to millions of new customers.
News of DraftKings’ move broke earlier this week when the operator received approval from the Northern Territory Racing Commission to offer its services in most of Australia. While DraftKings needs a separate license to serve the southern part of the country, its northern license opens up more than 20 million new, potential customers.
While DraftKings plans to open its Australian operations during Q2 2018, it won’t be tailoring its services to the Australian market right away. When it launches, it will not be offering contests on some sports that Aussies love such as cricket and Australia rules football. For the immediate future it seems as though Australians will have to content themselves with other sports such as NBA basketball, PGA golf, and professional tennis.
In a statement to the press on Business Wire, DraftKings CEO Jason Roberts explained his company’s interest in the Australian market saying:
Australia is an important market for DraftKings, as it combines devoted sports fans with sophisticated, tech-savvy consumers – exactly the kind of people who love competing on DraftKings.
Australia is the sixth country outside of North America that DraftKings has expanded to including Malta, Austria, the UK, Ireland and Germany. This expansion is particularly noteworthy as FanDuel, Draftkings’ rival and sometimes partner, has all but stopped its efforts to expand outside of the Norther American market.
As of this writing, DraftKings is working towards obtaining a license to operate in the southern part of Australia.