9 Kings

Lore & Background

9 Kings was developed by Sad Socket, an indie game studio based in São Paulo and New York City, founded by childhood friends Rafael Melo and André Young. The game was developed over two years with the ambition to be 'a casual game for strategy fans who are also very busy people'. The developers perceived it as an experimental project and did not anticipate its commercial success. After the prototype was nominated for Best Game at Gamescom LATAM, they pivoted to scale up development and completely revamped the game for its full release.

Reader's Guide

9 Kings is significant as a breakout indie title that achieved rapid commercial success in early access, selling over 250,000 copies in its first week and over 400,000 in its first month, while hitting Steam's top sellers global charts. Its early access release followed a demonstration version titled '3 Kings' released on Itch.io on May 25, 2024, which was deactivated after the early access launch. The game was nominated for Best Early Access Game at the Golden Joystick Awards 2025. Its legacy includes demonstrating how a small studio can achieve global attention through events like Steam Next Fest, and how a prototype nominated at a regional event (Gamescom LATAM) can lead to a full-scale commercial release. The game's minimalistic design and deep, replayable mechanics have been praised by the public, and it continues to receive critical acclaim.

Did You Know?

• The game was developed over the course of two years.
• A demonstration version titled '3 Kings' was released on Itch.io on May 25, 2024, where only 3 Kings were playable.
• The prototype was nominated for Best Game at Gamescom LATAM.
• The game sold over 400,000 copies in its first month of early access.

From a House in Somerville to a Sports Giant

DraftKings traces its origins to 2012, when three former Vistaprint colleagues—Jason Robins, Matthew Kalish, and Paul Liberman—launched a daily fantasy sports platform from Liberman's own home. Their debut product was a one-on-one baseball contest timed to coincide with Major League Baseball's opening day that year. The company's early traction was remarkable: by the end of 2013, it had distributed $50 million in prizes across weekly fantasy football and daily fantasy baseball, basketball, and hockey contests, while reporting 50,000 active daily users and up to one million registered players. A quiet but significant milestone came in April 2013, when MLB made an undisclosed investment in DraftKings, becoming the first American professional sports league to put capital behind a daily fantasy sports operator. This early league endorsement helped validate the model and set the stage for the aggressive growth and high-profile partnerships that would follow in the years ahead.

Aggressive Expansion and Industry Consolidation

Between mid-2014 and mid-2015, DraftKings executed a rapid series of acquisitions and partnerships that transformed it from a startup into a dominant force in the fantasy sports landscape. In July 2014, it absorbed rival DraftStreet, then owned by IAC and ranked as the third-largest player in the space, reportedly boosting its user base by half. Months later it acquired the assets of fellow Massachusetts competitor StarStreet. The company also locked in high-profile partnerships: a two-year official daily fantasy sports deal with the NHL in November 2014, a similar arrangement with MLB in April 2015, and a $250 million, three-year advertising agreement with ESPN in July 2015. That same month, DraftKings closed a $300 million funding round led by Fox Sports, with participation from the Kraft Group, owners of the New England Patriots, and Wellington Management. The deal carried a condition requiring $250 million in ad spend with Fox over three years. Internationally, the company secured a UK Gambling Commission license in August 2015 and launched in London in February 2016 with daily fantasy soccer, followed by a Malta-controlled skill games license that opened the door to broader European expansion.

Scandal, Scrutiny, and the Merger That Never Was

The period from late 2015 through 2017 tested DraftKings' credibility and business model under intense legal and public pressure. In October 2015, a New York Times report revealed that a DraftKings employee had inadvertently released data before an NFL game, and that the same individual had won $350,000 on rival FanDuel that week. Although an internal review concluded the data was accessed after lineups locked, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman opened an inquiry into both companies, and ESPN paused its sponsored segments the next day. By February 2016, ESPN had fully withdrawn from its advertising deal, citing legal uncertainty. Idaho's attorney general then banned both DraftKings and FanDuel as illegal gambling operations in May 2016. In a dramatic attempt to consolidate the fractured market, DraftKings and FanDuel announced their intent to merge in November 2016, a deal that would have served over five million users. However, the Federal Trade Commission moved in June 2017 to block the transaction, arguing the combined entity would command roughly 90 percent of the market.

Reinvention as a Sportsbook and Public Company

As the legal landscape around sports wagering shifted across the United States, DraftKings pivoted from a pure daily fantasy sports provider into a full-scale sportsbook operator. In May 2018, amid the widening legalization of sports betting, the company began expanding into online and retail sportsbooks, leveraging its established brand recognition and existing customer base. The path to public markets came in April 2020, when DraftKings completed a reverse merger involving SBTech, a Bulgarian technology firm, and special-purpose acquisition vehicle Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp. Today, DraftKings holds a substantial share of the American sports betting economy and operates legally in 26 states as of December 2025. Its growth has not been without friction: in July 2026, the company filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the City of Philadelphia's investigation into its sportsbook and online casino operations, underscoring the ongoing regulatory tensions that continue to shape the industry's trajectory.

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