US sportsbook and fantasy betting platform DraftKings has agreed a deal to buy Simplebet, a micro-betting markets provider.
The proposed transaction has already been approved by the directors’ boards of each brand, and now is only subject to the usual gaming regulatory approvals.
This has come after it was revealed earlier this week that the NFLPA, the players association of American football’s NFL, is suing DraftKings for unmade payments.
The Simplebet acquisition will, DraftKings said in unveiling the deal yesterday (August 28), entail the integration of the various machine-learning models operated by Simplebet into DraftKings’ pricing and technology platform, to “create highly accurate betting opportunities during every moment of a game.”
Corey Gottlieb, chief product officer at DraftKings, has said: “Live betting represents an area for potential growth for online sports betting, and the proposed acquisition would allow DraftKings to leverage Simplebet’s proprietary technology to create an in-play wagering experience that moves at the speed of sports.”
In terms of DraftKings’ activity this year, February saw the sportsbook announce the purchase of US lottery ticket app Jackpocket for $750 million.
Chris Bevilacqua, Simplebet’s co-founder and chief executive, added: “This transformative acquisition, upon completion, will marry our best-in-class AI and machine learning technology with the DraftKings product offering, enhancing the customer experience for a new era of real-time, in-play gaming.”
Simplebet was founded in 2018, and acts as a business-to-business micro-market pricing provider for top-tier US sports leagues such as the NFL, baseball’s MLB, basketball’s NBA, and ice hockey’s NHL - as well as for the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf League.
Regarding the NFLPA-DraftKings lawsuit, meanwhile, the players’ body has accused DraftKings of not paying what it owes for using the likenesses of NFL athletes on non-fungible tokens.
The NFLPA has claimed that DraftKings broke a deal around licensing the players’ name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights - by not paying licensing fees after its NFT business was closed in July.
The initial DraftKings-NFLPA deal was struck in late 2021.
The lawsuit said: “The impetus for DraftKings' decision to repudiate its license agreement with Plaintiffs is simple: the once white-hot market for NFTs has cooled down. Buyers’ remorse, however, is not a basis to terminate a contract.”
The NFLPA has claimed that after DraftKings initially moved away from its NFT business in April this year, the union agreed to change its first contract with the brand.
The case centers around whether the NFTs themselves should be counted as securities under the terms of the new contract - if that is the case, DraftKings has claimed the contract allows for the agreement to be ended.
