A fantasy sports and gaming company received a fresh injection of capital as the legality of daily fantasy sports (DFS) is under the microscope in America’s largest economy.
Fantasy Life, founded by fantasy football expert and media personality Matthew Berry, completed a $7 million seed funding round to accelerate growth and support acquisitions.
The round was led by LRMR Ventures, the investment vehicle of NBA superstar LeBron James and business mogul Maverick Carter. The round also included contributions from SC Holdings, Eberg Capital LLC, Wasserman Ventures, SUM Ventures and Bolt Ventures. It comes after Fantasy Life completed a $2 million seed round in 2023.
“We’re always looking for opportunities to invest in smart, creative people and businesses that share our values. What Matthew, Eliot and the team are building with Fantasy Life hits on everything we look for,” said Carter. “Their strong brand, incredible growth and the market size of sports gaming make for a compelling opportunity.”
Individual investors in the seed round included NFL legend Larry Fitzgerald Jr., Fortnite co-creator Donald Mustard, Grammy-winning artist John Legend, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Tony Khan, and YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley. The group joins existing Fantasy Life investors who include NFL quarterbacks Josh Allen and Joe Burrow.
Fantasy Life will use the fresh capital to support its recent acquisition of Guillotine Leagues, a week-to-week survival fantasy football platform. The company is also using the investment to launch FantasyHQ, a personalized hub that provides real-time player data, insights and projections. The offering, sponsored by Mike’s Hard Lemonade, also allows users to sync their fantasy football leagues and teams across multiple providers.
Fantasy sports debate in California
Fantasy sports are a hot topic across America following a recent opinion in California.
Last week, California Attorney General Rob Bonta released a long-awaited opinion on the legality of DFS in the state. Bonta, as predicted, declares DFS contests to be in violation of state law. The opinion declares every form of DFS offered in the state to be in violation of California law relating to sports betting with sports wagering banned in the Golden State.
Bonta’s opinion does not change California law, which does not explicitly ban DFS operators from accepting customers in the state allowing them to operate in a grey area.
The inability of Bonta’s opinion to change the law is leading several operators, including Underdog, FanDuel, PrizePicks and DraftKings to remain operating in California.
FanDuel and DraftKings intend to work with Bonta’s office to discuss fantasy sports.
