We all know how fun Daily Fantasy Sports can be on any given NFL Sunday.
Daily Fantasy Sports (or DFS) allows fans to draft a lineup of players (for a small fee) and compete to win daily cash prizes. Since sports betting in California is yet to come, residents can put their football skills to the test with DFS.
Draftea is the newest company looking to get in on the DFS action and will be bringing it to Spanish-speaking Latin America for the very first time.
Draftea’s initial focus will be on LIGA MX fantasy soccer matches, but the goal is to grow the company until it offers games for “every sport in the world.”
The plan is to create more than just a DFS app for Latin American sports fans, and to make it more of a social experience. Alán Jaime Misrahi, the founder of Draftea, had this to say about the app’s social capabilities:
“When you think of a region where soccer is almost a religion, where people get together for activities that are related to sports, where stadiums are full, where people enjoy [sports] as a family tradition, where people are in several WhatsApp groups talking about sports and fantasy – we want to bring all that together.”
Draftea’s stealthy rise
Misrahi grew up a massive soccer fan. He eventually went on to play in Mexico’s third division, but could never break through to the big leagues.
However, maybe that turned out for the best because Draftea is on track to become the most popular sports betting app in all of Latin America.
Draftea kind of popped up out of nowhere after a $13.2 million seed investment led by Kaszek, which also included participation from Sequoia, Bullpen, and the CEO and Founder of FanDuel, Nigel Eccles.
The investment by venture capital firm Sequoia marks its second investment in a company headquartered in Mexico. This comes just six months after they announced plans to double down on opportunities in Latin America.
Sequoia’s Konstantine Buhler met Misrahi through mutual connections at Stanford University, where Misrahi completed his MBA. Buhler spearheaded the investment in Draftea, calling it a:
“first-of-its-kind community for sports fans in Latin America where they can become the protagonist in their favorite games.”
She went on to say:
“We believe Alan and [the] team will quickly capture the hearts of fans in Mexico then expand to other countries in time for the World Cup.”
Besides Misrahi, the core founding team also includes four other individuals:
- Alejandra Lascurain, the former product head at Mexico’s largest neobank
- Miguel Gutierrez-Barquin, the previous growth leader at Rappi
- Joe Cohen, the former head of engineering at Vercel
- Andreas Assad, a former employee of EA Sports
The team consists of 34 employees, and there are plans to double the workforce in just the next few months.
DFS in California & looking ahead for Draftea
While Draftea is not available in the US, there are plenty of DFS apps in California you can use to get a feel for what it’s like. Platforms like DraftKings, FanDuel and others offer places to play and promotions to help get you started.
The future for Draftea looks incredibly bright. Since it is an app primarily focused on soccer, the upcoming World Cup should help its popularity greatly.