Spurred on by its entry into the digital and mobile age, the fantasy sports world is booming. From the fact that a hilarious and increasingly popular show based on fantasy sports is about to enter its sixth season to Yahoo’s increasing investment in fantasy sports products as part of a new mobile strategy that comes all the way from the top, the signs are everywhere that fantasy sports is turning into big business.
Another potentially impactful development has been the recent entry of Barry Diller-led media giant, IAC, into fantasy sports. The company, which now owns sites like About.com and College Humor and has seemed increasingly focused over the last few years on acquiring or incubating its way to owning the online and mobile dating markets with Match.com, OkCupid and Tinder, decided to place a bet on a fast-growing fantasy platform built by a company called Skyllzone.
Now led by Match.com CTO and GM Mike Presz, Skyllzone was founded in 2009 by a group of friends and fantasy fans who were on a mission to remove as many of the traditional requirements (or barriers) traditionally native to the fantasy experience as possible. Like private leagues limited to competition among friends or co-workers, the potential for injuries to ruin a season, or having to collect money from the league yourself should you win, for example.
The team’s first production aimed at addressing fantasy’s UX friction was DraftStreet, a website and (later) a mobile app that allow gamers to play against a single opponent or hundreds, competing in free leagues or for money — in daily or weekly matches. Since launching in 2010, DraftStreet has become one of the most popular daily fantasy sports platforms on the Web, due in part to its being one of the first sites to offer the ability for players to earn points.
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