PokerStars' Parent Company Acquires Victiv
It has been rumored for quite some time that Amaya, the parent company of popular online poker destination PokerStars, would be entering the daily fantasy sports business. Those rumors are finally a reality, as Amaya have announced that they have acquired Victiv, one of the more successful startups to join in the DFS market recently.
Victiv will be re-branded as “StarsDraft” and will be the home for Amaya’s daily fantasy sports contests, which, according to a press release, will launch “in select U.S. markets” initially and then later be available through the PokerStars platform. The team currently running Victiv will continue to manage the product for the StarsDraft launch, according to the press release, which features quotes from Victiv CEO Matthew Primeaux. “We intend to capitalize on what we believe is a strong crossover between online poker players and daily fantasy sports,” he said in the document announcing his company’s acquisition.
Victiv was already viewed by some as the “best of the rest” among daily fantasy sites, as several contenders tried to capitalize on a market dominated by FanDuel and DraftKings. Victiv offered unique games and options, and had bankroll building contests to allow users to begin playing cash contests without an initial investment.
Now, Amaya will hope that StarsDraft will benefit from their added marketing efforts and name recognition to grow in size, especially with the obvious overlap between poker and daily fantasy sports. According to Legal Sports Report, Victiv didn’t do the same sort of advertising or marketing that most other sites do, and instead grew via word of mouth and by working to improve their product and be as appealing as possible to new players.
That will change under Amaya, who have the money and the infrastructure to promote StarsDraft to their own members and to the public.
The timelines for this transition are not mentioned in the press release, so we’re not clear when StarsDraft will become available for play, and when Victiv as we know it will fade away. But we do know that whenever that happens that we may see one of the strongest pushes from a daily fantasy site to catch up to DraftKings and FanDuel.