Yahoo! has been issued a UK gambling license and is readying its daily fantasy sports (DFS) operations for UK punters. The company is now faced with the prospect of going head-to-head with FanDuel and DraftKings in the potentially massive UK DFS market.
It’s a big move for the company that was once known for its search engine and has struggled to find its place in the age of Google.
With the approval of the UK Gambling Commission, Yahoo! has also become one of a very few, possibly the only, non-gambling entity to hold such a license.
The license does not, however, indicate an interest in becoming the next Bovada, it’s merely the price of admission to the UK DFS scene. Both FanDuel and DraftKings have procured the same licenses and those companies are quick to point out that what they do is not gambling.
One major impediment to Yahoo!’s UK dreams is the twin-headed DFS dragon known as DraftKings and FanDuel. The two companies already dominate the worldwide DFS market and are hoping to merge their operations sometime in 2017 (pending regulatory approval).
Yahoo!’s current plans involve launching a series of football contests geared towards UK punters. The plan is similar to operations the company is currently running in the US and Canada.
In an odd twist to the story, Yahoo!’s former UK DFS partner Mondragal has shut down its real-money DFS tournaments, according to Legal Sports Report. In the future, the company will be focusing on B2B operations in the European market.
As yet, there’s not been any official announcement from Yahoo! regarding their UK DFS operation or its potential launch date.