Billion Dollar Fantasy: The High-Stakes Game Between FanDuel and DraftKings That Upended Sports in America – A True Business Saga of Risk, Hubris, and Redemption

by Albert Chen

APPLE BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH SELECTION 
 
"We devoured [this] engrossing account of the battle for supremacy between three fantasy gaming sites. ... Chen flips the script with a character-driven narrative, exposing the people who fueled the industry (not necessarily the folks you’d expect) and what motivated them (not necessarily unadulterated greed). Gamers will find this book impossible to put down, as will anyone who loves a good origin story." — Apple Books, Best of the Month selection
 
"Fans of financial thrillers such as Barbarians at the Gate will be excited by this insider account of the dizzying rise of fantasy sports websites" — Publishers Weekly
 
You've seen the commercials. Here is the untold story behind the clash of billion dollar companies that unleashed an unprecedented advertising war.

From Sports Illustrated's Albert Chen comes the story of two companies whose battle unleashed a carpet bombing of advertising as they sought supremacy in an exploding fantasy sports and gambling market: In a time of gushing venture capital money, FanDuel and DraftKings turned into billion-dollar companies seemingly overnight — then, just as quickly, found themselves the target of FBI and Department of Justice investigations, and facing likely destruction.

Chen tells the story of the improbable individuals behind the saga: An Irishman who knew nothing about American sports. A fantasy geek who felt it was his destiny to change the way fellow nerds watched the games they loved. A conflicted poker player. A mother of three in Scotland.

In a character-driven narrative with excursions into the strange and unexpected, Chen takes us from casinos to board rooms, from Edinburgh to Wall Street to the Vegas Strip, to tell a sprawling and intimate tale of the new world that this group of accidental disruptors helped to create. It’s a story of ideas and dreams, about a world of risk, luck, hubris, greed and redemption—a story for our high-stakes times.

Genres: Sports, Business, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Economics, Football, Biography

304 pages, Hardcover

Published September 10, 2019

Reviews

[Evan Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I play and have played DFS for many years, this book was too long for the subject matter. Although pretty well written, most of the material was fairly boring in nature. Unless you’re a DFS fan, stay away.

[John Schorg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, the book does a good job of explaining the boom in fantasy sports betting, and there are some vivid personalities drawn here, but it's all in the service of something that is helping suck the fun out of watching sports. Gambling is legitimate now throughout the country, and you cannot escape the incessant talk of odds and bets on every sort of game. The potential for scandal is huge, and there isn't a thing to be done about it.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was well-reported and engagingly written! There are lots of nice human details that make the story more relatable and add a sense of narrative arc. The book follows Draft Kings and FanDuel as they established daily fantasy sports empires/dodged regulations in the 2010s and ends right with the nationwide legalization of sports betting. As a product manager, I particularly enjoyed the passages about how each company achieved product market fit and acquired users with MASSIVE ad campaigns. Their budgets were slightly mind-blowing!

However, the one perspective I felt was missing from this book was of the fans, especially those with gambling addictions. One fan is profiled who made multiple millions of dollars, but I imagine he’s the exception that proves the rule. Without this perspective, I thought the book was a little too rose-colored. I would be extra curious to learn more about the societal impact of full-on sports betting; so much has changed between now and 2019 (when this book was published). Still, I enjoyed the chance to learn more about these companies and their evolution!

[Korryn Mozisek · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful and enjoyable read. The subject (DFS) is not enough to carry the book, so Chen's character development and interweaving storylines across chapters that are more vignettes carried the book.

[Jeremy Gardiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just checked off a book from my 2022 Gospel eBooks reading challenge. It was a monthly themed challenge where I read "a book about a hobby of yours".

I got interested in fantasy sports when Draftkings released their Reignmakers NFT game this year. I'm a huge believer in NFTs and one form of utility they gave me for owning was free bets for their daily fantasy games. These games had me craft lineups of fighters I thought would win while staying under a salary cap for the chance to win money and prizes. It took the fan experience to a higher level, making me more engaged and making the overall fight night experience more enjoyable. You cheer a little harder when you have skin in the game.

So when it was time to read a book about a hobby of mine, I picked up this book which is a history of the two largest daily fantasy gaming platforms. The book covers 2013-2019 from the startup, initial insane growth, the regulatory battles, the competition between platforms, and controversies along the way, and their failed merger. The author clearly did his research and provided an interesting and engaging history of daily fantasy games. My only critique is the book spends more time on FanDuel and I wish the author had covered Draftkings as closely.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Who knew a book detailing the building of a billion-dollar industry, sprinkled with a few stories about those who won millions playing the online sports games the industry built, could be so boring?

Me, after reading this.

Albert Chen details the rise and almost fall of DraftKings and FanDuel, the fantasy sports websites whose ubiquitous ads you probably saw even on your bedroom ceiling just before you fell asleep a couple years ago. DraftKings came about when Jason Robins bought out a rival and started spending money like others breathe air; FanDuel was mostly the creation of husband-and-wife team Nigel and Lesley Eccles. Pages and pages detailing meetings with possible funders for the websites, with lawyers for the websites, with workers for the websites, with just about anyone you could think of related to the websites go by. Just not a lot of interesting things in there.

Then there's the players, a couple of which are profiled in here. One duo won a million dollars in one of the early contests one of the websites offered. They got to meet Bo Jackson because of it. And ... that's about it. Maybe if they would have spent all their winnings on hookers and blow it would have made a more compelling story.

Or maybe if the founders did the same. Instead, they just go about their business, fight with regulators and politicians, and eventually emerge as millionaires when the online fantasy sports sites slowly become legal across the United States, one state at a time. One section, about 100 pages in and 20 pages long, gets a bit exciting as it details the decisions behind those ads we saw every commercial break. They made most everyone mad, even those who liked to play on the sites, and drew the attention of powerful people who wanted them to go away.

At only 250 or so pages, I expected a quick and breezy read. Instead, I could only make it through 20 pages at a time before wishing a bill collector would call or a neighbor would knock to ask for some sugar. Anything to add a little pep to the day. Maybe it's because I'm midway through the fourth season of Billions, which is full of conflict between billionaire Wall Street hedge funders and the politicians who both enable and deter them.

Of course, made up Wall Street stories can always be more exciting because anything can happen since they are made up. But then, Michael Lewis and Ben Mezrich have made real Wall Street stories page-turners. Albert Chen's a fine writer. He just didn't make this one compelling to me.

[Collin Mickle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Albert Chen, an excellent reporter and good writer, does his level best with this one. But as much as he tries to pump up dramatic moments and high stakes ("It was simple: if the payment processors pulled the plug, they were dead in the water."), there just isn't much there. (That dramatic setup is resolved three sentences later with a Saltine-bland "The meeting with PayPal had gone better than expected," and poof, those terrifying payment processors are never mentioned again.)

Chen seems to have started this project with hopes of a Barbarians At The Gates-style chronicle of carnage and infighting, or maybe a Bringing Down The House-type tale of plucky nerds beating long odds. But his access to the principals seems to have locked him into their version of every story. And the execs and ex-execs of DraftKings and FanDuel and the rest are all so dull, or so lawyered-up, that every story is sanitized and stripped of whatever drama or interest it might originally have had.

[Aja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5

I have zero interest in sports, let alone fantasy games. But this book fascinated me nonetheless.

It spans the beginning of the (modern) daily fantasy sports landscape to the present, starting with the founding of FanDuel in Scotland and DraftKings in Boston, moving through their early challenges battling each other for market share, then detailing the intense legal and regulatory battles they had to fight with seemingly every state in the country.

The first half of the book is far more enjoyable than the second; I think Chen was most comfortable with the founder-driven narrative, which he had to abandon when he got to the legal stuff. I was most interested in this part of the book, but found myself trudging through it.

Chen also introduces a ton of people, to his detriment. Some minor characters were interesting—I can see why he wanted to include them—but don't add much to the overall picture and ultimately, confuse the reader with an abundance of names and backstories.

Some of the writing is, frankly, lazy. The FanDuel founders are described as the "nerds from Britain" approximately 15 times. The DraftKing founders are meanwhile reduced to "frat boys." While it's helpful to have shorthand for the central groups (especially because we're dealing with a ton of people, as mentioned above), there are subtler, more creative options.

All in all, if you were one of the hundreds of millions of Americans who couldn't watch TV or go to work without seeing an ad for one of these platforms, you're interested in the ascendancy and challenges of a nascent industry, and/or you're waiting for the next Michael Lewis book to come out, give Billion Dollar Fantasy a go.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was received as an ARC from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Now that football season is upon us I am seeing a lot of commercials for fanduel and draftkings and how they are proven for all to win money. I dare must say when I saw these commercials for the first time, I was a little curious and skeptical whether or not these sites were legit and people can really win from them so when I saw that Billion Dollar Fantasy was available to preview, I had to jump at the chance and find out for myself. Hearing the history of draftkings and fanduel was a really interesting road for Nigel, Lesley, and Lieberman all being involved in a civil lawsuit almost ending their careers. Albert Chen does a great job extracting their backgrounds and showcasing the development of the companies and how they grew to the billion dollar industry they are known for today. Before signing up for accounts, everyone should read this book and know a little about the companies before diving in and pressing their luck on these sites.

We will consider adding this title to our Non-Fiction collection at the library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

[Ayse · Rating 2 out of 5]

This meandering story told back and forth jumping in time over a decade about the rise and metamorphosis of two fantasy gaming sites was confusing and difficult to follow. The narrator sometimes used bad Irish or new York accents when quotes from people were read, which was distracting and annoying. The topic is interesting even for an outsider to the industry but the way it was told here was not great. It wasn't complicated really but the meandering back and forth in time and between the two companies made it seem convoluted and strange. Even in the last chapter, the author was talking about the origin story for one of the companies! There is no straightforward tale, no meaningful arc to the narrative so it ends of being a little boring.

[Donna Wetzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks Goodreads for my copy of Billion Dollar Fantasy:The High Stakes Game Between FanDuel and DraftKings that Upended Sports in America by Albert Chen. This is a story of two startup companies and how they became billion dollar companies and what became of their original founders. The author, Albert Chen, did a fantastic job of making a complicated topic seem easy to understand. I found the story fascinating, even though, I will admit , I am not a sports fan. From this book, I learned about fantasy sports betting but I enjoyed learning about the dynamics of getting a company off the ground and surviving.

[Jason Laso · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a little on the long side (the main story would be relatively short, so he fluffed the pages with a lot of unnecessary background), but it's a great story nonetheless. I do think Chen tends to be a bit sympathetic towards Nigel and Leslie Eccles (Fanduel), making them out to be out to be simple English folks who had no idea their "little ol fantasy site" would draw so much negative attention for skating around gambling regulations. It's a stark contrast compared to Jason Robins (Draftkings), their direct competitor, who Chen makes sound like a ruthless martyr. I tend to have a hard time imagining the Eccles' to be as innocent as Chen made them sound at times.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have undoubtedly seen the ads for DraftKings, FanDuel, and and similar games. It is also very likely that you have played one of these daily fantasy games, and probably even have your preferred brand of choice. This book will give you an in-depth look at how these games came about, the people behind them, and the meteoric rise of these games in America. Albert Chen provides excellent coverage of the war between DraftKings and FanDuel, and how this war has forever influenced and changed sports in America.

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book on Goodreads. I found this book to be OK, just so-so. I had a difficult time "getting into" this book about fantasy sports gaming. It was tough reading all the minute details that are in this book. I felt it could have been condensed a lot more instead of writing in every little thing that occurred, from bar meetings, to the political establishment getting involved, to legality issues, etc. Overall the book was very tedious to read but I can appreciate what the author was trying to accomplish.

[Pedro Tuccori · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know Albert Chen’s work from Sports Illustrated magazine and he is obviously a fine writer.
As for his first book, I found Billion Dollar Fantasy below average.
I believe it has to do with the cast of characters, which I found pretty boring.
It is a story punctuated by financial terms that the average Joe, who does not have a degree in Economics from Yale, may find a bit tricky to comprehend sometimes.
Sports gambling and fantasy games maybe very exciting but the story of these two unicorns and quest to survive told on this book are not so much.

[Zack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goodreads Giveaway - Your typical "start-up" story: idea -> development -> conflict -> success or failure. Albert Chen does a pretty good job at making these characters interesting (if you've seen Jason Robins on tv, you know this is high praise). There's really not much to say about this book which is different than any other book about start-up unicorns. If you're interesting in sports business and the business of sports there's some interesting insights here; or if you're just hooked on this genre of book, it's worth a read.

[Tim Darley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chen provides a very interesting look into the recent evolution of daily fantasy sports through the lens of two of its biggest players, Draft Kings and FanDuel. The story felt more heavily focused on FanDuel and its founders, but provides good overall insight. As a relatively short read, the characters and storylines are somewhat limited. The book gives you an overview of the subject in a fast moving story form, but I was left curious for more depth into the topic, the players and underlying market forces at work.

[Daniel Verderese · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 175 pages are very good and the last chapter is very good but there's a pretty heavy lull in the book for about 50+ pages that seem like filler. So for that I can't give it 5 stars but the book is definitely interesting and worth reading. As a sports fan and a gambling fan who has played in DFS games, it was cool learning the back story of two very different companies with the same vision

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A breezy chronicle covering the behind-the-scenes machinations that led to daily fantasy's rise. Fantasy sports fans will gravitate to the topic and likely find the account interesting. Still, a few issues held this to a 3 star read. The story's timeline hops back and forth at a distracting clip. Its pages are prone to dragging. That said, if you can look past the repetitive/overwritten passages, you'll end up with a broader appreciation for the folks that built Fanduel and DraftKings.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible story that, in the long run, will be the story of how sports gambling in the U.S. came to be. DFS -- sports betting by another name -- was the canary in a coal mine for what we have now, post-PASPA. Chen tells the story largely through the people who lived it, who drove it, who were eventually swamped by it. Great, well-written yarn.

[Drake McCrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 2,5 star rating. I am personally not a fantasy sport guy nor do I have strong feelings about gambling. Therefore my interest in this book was purely the business story and that story is unfinished. In my opinion this book was written about five years too early since there are law suits and outstanding legal questions still. This is a book will get better with its second edition.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know a thing about daily fantasy sports or betting, outside of stupid shot bets during the super bowl and one fantasy football season championship that I miraculously won, but I found this book wildly engrossing. The reviews are correct. This story is fantastic regardless of the reader’s interest in sports. I’d happily suggest this to friends.

[Tom Carey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book was fine, but the story could have been punched up quite a bit. The writer has all the elements of a thrilling book. Money, scandal, start-ups, gambling, Vegas and greed. Unfortunately it just seemed to fall flat.

This story is far from over so maybe another book will be written about this story.

[Ryan Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very interesting for sure. The meteoric rise of FanDuel and DraftKings is nothing short of incredible.
Personally, it was another book I wish I would’ve read faster.
Only gave 4/5 stars because the end felt a little too fluffy/perfect in a way/also somewhat anti-climactic.

Regardless, definitely a good read for anyone interested in sports and sports gambling

[Christopher Reiff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is worth reading if you are fan of paid fantasy sports or interested in the startup space. On the latter, the book does a good job of sharing the successes and failures of Draft Kings and Fan Duel as they were founded, raised money, on the road to achieving unicorn valuation status. It goes into detail how both big and small details can cause the valuation and money to evaporate.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched and pretty interesting, though Chen gets a little in the weeds on some things that could have been glossed over and goes a little light on some of the people I would have wanted to know more about.

Can't say that I had a lot of faith in America's ability to properly regulate sports gambling before reading this, and I have considerably less of that faith now.

[S.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting examination of the daily fantasy sports gaming industry. Focuses on the developments, motivations, and obsessions of the key individuals behind the two dominant company players in this industry.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book from goodreads and gave it to my Fantasy football/baseball /basketball fanatic. He devoured the book during a long weekend. the book was interesting and full of information. He gave the book a 5 star rating. Now my son is going to borrow it!

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book.

I remember the first time I saw the commercials for online fantasy sport betting and thought, "This can't be legal. How are they getting away with this?" I found the story interesting and kept me reading.

[Russell Siminoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good start, poor finish

I really enjoyed the first half of the book. However, the 3rd quarter of it slowed down, and it kind of petered out meekly. The ending was a disappointment with a wishy washy conclusion.