DraftKings brings its daily-fantasy sports empire to esports

Daily fantasy sports are going electronic.

DraftKings, one of the top companies in the daily-fantasy market, is expanding to include professional gaming. The site announced this morning that it will take wagers on the League of Legends World Championships starting October 1. Fans can either play for free or in game that include cash prizes — it even revealed it will have one contest for $3 that will pay out $25,000 to the winners. Daily fantasy is an enormous business. DraftKings and its main competitor FanDuel are each worth around $1 billion, and they collectively spent around $31 million on marketing during the first week of the NFL season, according to media company Digiday. DraftKings in particular made a blockbuster deal with cable-sports leader ESPN that makes it the exclusive daily-fantasy partner of the network. This involves the DraftKings logo plastered all over ESPN shows and a promise that the fantasy site will spend $250 million in advertising over the next two years.