Esports bet pays off for daily fantasy sports during the pandemic

Esports was probably not on the original list of things that will keep daily fantasy sports sites profitable in 2020, but the meteoric success of DFS in pro gaming is one of the rare sports success stories during the pandemic.

Despite DraftKings offering it as a game as early as 2015 and FanDuel providing the first legal and online esports betting platform late last year, there really wasn’t an initial push to draw a large audience. Prize pools remained below the low five-digits, and many sites didn’t offer any esports fantasy games, let alone DFS. For years esports daily fantasy was hardly a blip on the DFS radar.