Legalized sports betting in New Jersey — and potentially in many other states — appears to be on the horizon following December oral arguments before the Supreme Court that by all measures tilted strongly toward New Jersey. A ruling in favor of the state would decisively alter the sports-betting landscape in the United States.
In the meantime, single-game sports betting remains restricted to Nevada while daily fantasy sports (DFS) represents the only way for users (in most states) to legally win and lose money on sports outcomes — albeit using player performances as the grading measure, as opposed to game results.
There do exist, however, a handful of forward-thinking platforms that have succeeded in further blurring the boundaries between sports betting and DFS through the introduction of contests and games that are rooted in daily fantasy principles, but in practice feel much more like twists on prop betting. Among the firms that have upped the proverbial ante:
FastPick. A house-banked parlay game, FastPick bills itself as “just you vs. the house,” as the platform allows users to parlay the outcomes of anywhere from 3 to 10 daily fantasy matchups on a fixed-odds scale similar to prop parlay cards offered by sports books. Available to New Jersey residents, FastPick, in partnership with Resorts Atlantic City, represents the closest thing to good old fashioned sports betting.
US Fantasy Sports. The first licensed fantasy company in Nevada, US Fantasy Sports’ platform centers around a pari-mutuel form of fantasy sports whereby users place de facto wagers with floating odds on which players will score the most fantasy points at their respective position in a given game. In January 2018, US Fantasy rolled out a mobile app that is available to users in 23 states.
Boom Fantasy. A prize-pool based contest, Boom Fantasy pits users against one another answering fantasy-matchup-related questions on a sliding scale of points, with longer-shot predictions (ex. Al Horford will score more points than LeBron James) resulting in users garnering higher point totals in pursuit of prize pools. A unique feature of the platform, deemed a Jackpot, closely resembles prop parlay cards in that users can commit a small entry fee with the opportunity to win a six- or seven-figure fixed prize pool if they “run the table” on cards featuring eight or nine player-performance-related questions.
WinView. Utilizing a prop-based in-game model, WinView allows users to answer team- and player-related questions in real time during breaks in the action, making it the closest thing to the live-betting formats that have become the preferred wagering choice for many bettors in Nevada and overseas. Points for correct answers are allocated on a house-determined sliding-odds scale, with cash prizes awarded to the highest scores.
Similar to daily fantasy giants DraftKings and FanDuel, platforms like FastPick, US Fantasy Sports, Boom Fantasy and WinView have found ways to further exploit the functional loophole in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 that spurred DFS companies into existence. What differentiates this aforementioned quartet, however, is their cumulative acknowledgement of the reality that DFS represents merely a garnish to the preferred main course of the American public: single-game sports betting.
For that reason, FastPick, US Fantasy Sports, Boom Fantasy and WinView have sensed what is an imminent paradigm shift in the space and thus find themselves ahead of the curve.