Daily fantasy giant, Draftkings announced their acquisition of leading MMA fantasy provider, Kountermove earlier today. Darftkings co-founder, Matt Kalish details the deal and the transition for users.
Fantasy Sports has received some big news today in that DFS giant, Draftkings has acquired Kountermove Fantasy MMA. Kountermove was the first provider of paid-platform fantasy MMA in late 2011, and quickly became the industry standard. Draftkings’ entry into the MMA space wasn’t long after, and now, with the acquisition of Kountermove, they have the most comprehensive DFS site in the world.
Draftkings co-founder, Matt Kalish fielded questions from Bloody Elbow earlier today, expressing first and foremost, a desire to give combat sports fans an all-encompassing fantasy experience by expanding on their own platform with the addition of Kountermove’s unique offerings (kickboxing, boxing and jiu-jitsu games and tournaments).
“Over the last several months, we’ve been working at Draftkings alongside Brian (Knapp), Aaron (Ard) and his team at Kountermove, and we knew that we wanted to do something together. The product at Kountermove that Brian and Aaron have built is a really great experience for fight fans. The expertise that they have with PR, in the Brazilian jiu-jitsu world (both Ard and Knapp are BJJ black belts), and as people that are very committed to the mixed martial arts space, made us really want to work with them. We spent several months looking for the best way to do that, and today is the culmination of all that work.”
The deal brings more than 30,000 registered users from Kountermove to Draftkings, making a focus on integration of user accounts the primary objective. Kalish went on to note that the transition will be a smooth and seamless affair, with Kountermove users being able to migrate their accounts to Draftkings with minimal effort and maximum ease.
“The way it’s going to work is that the users from Kountermove will be able to come on, in a very seamless way, and migrate their accounts over to Draftkings, and starting immediately, they’ll be able to participate in bigger, more appealing, mixed martial arts fantasy games at Draftkings. By bringing the users all together, we think that will create a great experience for everyone, as well as the additional benefit that we’ll see from the Kountermove team coming over and taking roles at Draftkings, driving our product and user experience forward.”
Kountermove co-founder, Brian Knapp added,
“Aaron and I ultimately believe that this was the way to realize our vision. Our dream, when we first started the company, was that fantasy MMA would become widespread, and played by many, many fans worldwide. MMA is arguably one of the best sports for daily fantasy in terms of the player experience. It’s the only true, year-round sport offered in all of daily fantasy. Draftkings was just the perfect place for our team and our users to go. The combined companies will become the leader in fantasy MMA for many years to come.”
You can view the official press release below.