DraftKings, FanDuel May Merge

Regardless of your opinions on its legality, daily fantasy sports gave rise to a boom market in digital transactions like most startups only dream about. However, after a few months of rough waters, it seems like the two biggest names in the daily fantasy market are pulling out all the stops to restart the engine.

According to anonymous sources, Bloomberg is reporting that DraftKings Inc. and FanDuel Inc. are currently in talks about a potential merger and that these talks have been going on for some time. The sources don’t point to any likely outcome and, in fact, mention that both companies are skittish enough to cut off talks at any current point.

If DraftKings and FanDuel do merge, however, it may create a greater pool of resources to fuel their numerous legal battles, ongoing and imminent, to guarantee operation in critical states like New York and California. Bloomberg noted that the former appears likely to pass regulations for daily fantasy gambling that will allow the companies to run in New York after being suspended last year. The merger would also make coordination easier for the lobbying ground that both FanDuel and DraftKings contributed to to make their case in the halls of power.