Poker and daily fantasy sports have had a close relationship since daily fantasy came online. In fact, many credit former Card Runners poker training site founder, for creating the space. Former WSOP 2015 Main Event Finalist – Max Steinberg now only won his way to the main event through a tournament on Draft Kings, a popular daily fantasy site. He announced he was retiring from poker to focus on daily fantasy sports.
That relationship is getting a lot closer as time goes on. Many poker players call themselves daily fantasy experts and some make a decent living solely from this niche.
Back in January, Phil Ivey, perhaps the world's biggest name in poker, announced he was forming his own daily fantasy site. He partnered with the ITeam network to create – PhiIveyDFS. Players can bet on most major sports including football, NBA, MLB and other mainstream sports.
You may be wondering why poker players, who can make millions in poker, would prefer to play daily fantasy sports instead. Or at least on the side.
Some of these tournaments in daily fantasy sports have guaranteed prize pools in the millions. Daily fantasy is no slouch when it comes to prize pools. They rival many major poker tournaments on a regular basis. The player base is huge with thousands of new players joining up all the time.
Take for example professional poker player, Aaron Jones. In January of 2016, Jones won one of the largest daily fantasy sports tournaments ever held. Aaron has won millions playing poker but during the Draft Kings Fantasy Football World Championship he won $5 million. More than he has won his entire poker career.
Fantasy sports are nothing new. They have been around since the late 70's when a group of rich bankers looking to stay in touch with friends created the first fantasy baseball league. Daily Fantasy sports are rather new. At least the concept and platform to play on.
Over the last several years, Americans and American sports have been bulldozed by daily fantasy sports. The NFL now practically insists every stadium to showcase fantasy stats on the scoreboards. They even partner with some of the larger daily fantasy sites.
Riding the wave of success, Draft Kings took that wave all the way across the pond to the U.K. In February of 2016, Draft Kings announced their launch in the United Kingdom. American football and the NBA is growing in popularity on the island nation; and Draft Kings hopes to capitalize on that.
This will surely expand the connection of poker players with fantasy sports. Many top European poker pros have yet to experience Daily Fantasy Sports. And now they will.
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