An old sales story goes – a man went to Africa and came back and concluded – There’s no market for shoes, nobody wears shoes in Africa. Another man went to Africa and deduced – Nobody wears shoes in Africa, lets start selling shoes.
Europe is now that untapped market for Daily Fantasy Sports – with one major difference – the DFS has already started to brew in Europe. And one sport that’s sweeping the DFS is football– a sport that’s imprinted in the culture and history of Europe. UK and Spain are especially high on football with a considerable portion of Daily Fantasy Sports players showing interest in fantasy football games.

European Football is loved worldwide

The Business Insider had reported that in the last Football World Cup, of the 157 goals scored through the round of 16, more than half were scored by players that play in either the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga, or Spain's La Liga. No wonder thus that these players have won the hearts of millions of people around the world. As a result, fantasy football is something that comes as a modern-day bonus for these fans who want the most famous European players in their fantasy teams.

DFS football is an extension of real game fanship

English Premier League is the UK’s largest fantasy sport provider with a reported 3 million users on a season-long basis. There are also a few UK newspapers who have successfully engaged readers and fans worldwide onto their fantasy sports platforms. The Sun, The Daily Telegraph and TV broadcaster Sky Sports are reaching a million users in terms of their fantasy sports platforms.

Europe doesn’t have a DFS whale yet

Unlike the United States that has FanDuel and DraftKings, Europe and UK are yet to find their biggest fantasy sports provider or a phenomenal daily fantasy sports platform. While comparing the market penetration, we find that roughly 14% of the US population and 19% of the Canadian population play fantasy sports while the number could be 5% in the UK. And learning from the US market, it’s the startups that would disrupt this market not the existing corporations.

Why does DFS hold potential in Europe for startups?

- It’s an infant market that’s ready for both DFS and season-long fantasy sports with a lot of scope to become huge.
- Due to lack of a flag-bearer in fantasy sports, European market is a level-playing field for those wishing to build ambitious fantasy sports applications or daily fantasy sports mobile applications.
- Fans in Europe are already sensitized towards football, their fanship means no bounds and they may be waiting for something like a fantasy football application.
- Football may lead the fantasy sport market in Europe. This is crucial because even in the US, 73% of participants in the fantasy sports played in fantasy NFL in 2015 while those playing Fantasy football steadily grew to 20%.