In addition to Fan Duel, DraftKings and now Yahoo, there are any number of smaller Daily Fantasy game creators now looking for room in the space to carve their own niche. One fun launch that has gained some traction with both investors and a young demo is Draftpot. Launched earlier this year, Draftpot was the brainchild of a 20 year old Columbia University freshman named Joey Levy, who wanted to find an innovative daily fantasy platform that offers restricitonless gaming to a market built around student entrepreneurs, and big data.
The business has grown to the point where Levy will take a gap year to move things along, and continue to find a niche that has moved with a small marketing budget, no traditional salary cap, and the legwork of a team devoted to finding college students and others to get involved in playing a simple form of what is being offered on a larger scale.
We caught up with Levy to talk about his opportunities and the challenges of being a disruptor, one with funding, in the daily fantasy space.
In a short time you have found a niche with Draftpot, how can you compete with the two large players, now three with Yahoo, and set yourself apart?
By fundamentally differentiating our product, particularly by developing two game types that cater to both hardcore and everyday sports fans, we feel that we’re targeting a much larger demographic than our competitors. Furthermore, as a team of developers, we’re able to allocate the majority of our resources to large guaranteed prize pools, lower rakes, and generous deposit bonuses.
We also have the first user driven chat area where you can talk trash during competitions. This is an element of the game that was taking place offline for years but Draftpot allows that user interaction online. If you go any other site when you are tracking your contests in real time it really just a list of whose participating and the order – while we provide that information because it’s necessary – we also have a chat box on that same page where you communicate with those same participants. It can get quite fun – we’ve had tournaments where there has been over 600 people all interacting and talking smack.
Why do you think there is a market for a simple daily game?
Many traditional season-long fantasy players feel that existing salary cap formats are too complicated. By eliminating the salary cap, we feel that we have a great opportunity to attract more casual players.
How did you come up with the idea to launch, and what has been the response?
I came up with the idea for Draftpot after receiving a call from my uncle, who plays season-long fantasy. He was calling because he saw one of our competitors’ ads on television, but after going to their site, he wasn’t sure how to use it. I quickly realized there was an opportunity to develop a product that catered to a larger audience of sports fans. So far, the response has been very positive, and despite our existing platform launching just in mid-June, we already have $150,000 in guaranteed prize pools up for week one of NFL.
I knew there was a need for an alternative platform to offer restriction-free games. I started doing more research into the nature of DFS. I was always a player but when I heavily got into the business I realized how big of an opportunity it could be. It really is the instant gratification of the games that drive the revenue. The space is in its infancy but nevertheless moving. The industry provided its viability but at the same time was early enough to develop a product to differentiate itself. That’s where Draftpot fills the gap.
Where have you found the best marketing bang on a small budget?
Social media. Also, our initial users have been very effective brand ambassadors, so they’ve referred quite a few people to Draftpot as well.
What has been the response thus far from advertisers and investors?
Many advertisers who usually exhibit skepticism towards newer sites have been a bit open-minded with us because we’re coming into the space with such a differentiated product (that many of them feel has been missing from DFS).
Our investors have been impressed by the progress we’ve made in such a short period of time, and we’re all preparing for the upcoming football season.
You are aiming for a younger demo, how have you seen growth in a college market especially?
As we were developing our product, we realized that college students would be a strong demographic for us to target. Considering this, we established a campus representative program, which has led to hundreds of college students actively using our product.
Is there a market for college fantasy that has yet to be exploited?
Our primary competitors have already introduced fantasy college football and basketball to DFS, but we feel that there’s still tremendous room for growth in this area. We’ll be launching our fantasy college football product this month, and our fantasy college basketball product sometime in October.
You were doing this while attending Columbia, how are you able to balance both?
I won’t be. I’m taking some time off of school to focus solely on Draftpot, since it’s simply not feasible to do both. It’s been a challenge dealing with classes while trying to build a business, especially one that requires so much time and effort. My partner (fellow Columbia University student) directly oversees the web development. My job is to continue that trajectory.
What will it take to get Draftpot to keep growing and where do you want to be at the start of NFL 2016?
For us to continue growing, we’ll need to continue to quickly acquire users which will subsequently allow us to host large, low barrier to entry guaranteed prize pools. At the start of the next football season, we hope to be entrenched as a prominent competitor in the space.
Any advice for the student entrepreneur?
Defiantly going to require full time commitment. To do it right you can’t do it on the side. To be successfully your venture simply has to be full time. Pursue what you want to pursue but understand what you are getting into and commit accordingly.
