DraftKings Reveals Details On "Leagues" Feature
After announcing its new “Leagues” feature on Sunday, DraftKings has revealed more details.
Simply stated, Leagues, which is now live, gives users the ability to create a kind of DraftKings within DraftKings, forming new, private lobbies populated by hand-selected users and user-created contests.
“What we wanted to do is give users a more personalized experience with DraftKings,” said company co-founder and COO Paul Lieberman. “With Leagues, we bring in the all the positive aspects of DFS with the social aspects that make fantasy sports so fun. It will allow players to bring a community together in an easy way.”
All DraftKings users will have the ability to create multiple Leagues and invite friends, colleagues, etc. Players can be invited by searching for DraftKings username, or invitations can be sent via email, text message, Facebook or Twitter. Referral benefits will apply for users who bring in first-time players to compete in Leagues.
Within the league, users will have the ability to create contests for all sports offered on DraftKings, including setting the size of the field (max 400), entry fee and payout structure. While DraftKings has offered the ability to create private contests in the past, Lieberman said the Leagues feature improves the interface while bringing in some of the benefits of season-long leagues, such as continuity and camaraderie.
Each league will have a private leaderboard, which will keep track of the number of contests played, contests wins/places, average score, high score and prizes won.
“The last four years, since we started DraftKings, the biggest request we got from users was to make it easier to play with friends and colleagues,” Lieberman said. “We think the ability to create this private experience on the site is going to appeal to a lot of players.”
Users should now see a “Leagues” tab at the top of the DraftKings homepage. From there, players will be able to quickly create and name a league and begin inviting fellow players and setting up contests.
Earlier this month FanDuel also announced a new product which would bridge the gap between season-long and daily fantasy. Dubbed Friends Mode, the FanDuel feature is set to debut later this month. No details have yet been released.