FanDuel renewed its longtime partnership with GeoComply, a global leader in geolocation and identity verification, it was announced Monday.
Key Takeaways
- FanDuel and GeoComply have a partnership dating back 13 years.
- The multi-year renewal covers all FanDuel’s product line, including FanDuel Predicts.
- This long-standing partnership gives FanDuel an edge over some prediction market operators, which are now confronting geolocation issues.
U.S. sports betting and iGaming are regulated at the state level. As a result, providers must ensure age and geographic restrictions are rigorously monitored and enforced. GeoComply is a market leader in geolocation and has been FanDuel’s partner almost since the company’s inception.
“FanDuel and GeoComply have grown up together, from their first regulated state to nationwide scale,” said GeoComply CEO Kip Levin. “What's been interesting is everything we've built together on top of those signals since: fraud and abuse detection, frictionless authentication, market insights. The kind of intelligence that is key to operators’ compliance at scale.”
The renewal comes as U.S. legal gaming heads into football season, which is traditionally a high-volume acquisition and engagement period. This surge in activity is something GeoComply knows well. Since the partnership began, GeoComply has handled billions of player checks for FanDuel, with a 99.7% pass rate. The company has also maintained 99.999% service availability during peak Super Bowl traffic, multi-state launches, and regulatory changes. The company also handled more than 3.2 million player checks during Alberta’s first week of regulated iGaming.
Enjoying Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account“GeoComply has been an important partner as we’ve built a platform our customers can trust,” said FanDuel president Christian Genetski. “Our focus has always been on delivering a great customer experience while operating with the highest standards of integrity and compliance. We’re excited to continue working with GeoComply in the years ahead.”
Prediction markets add new importance
The alliance between FanDuel and GeoComply is particularly strategic now, with the advent of prediction market sites. Federally regulated prediction markets that offer sports event contracts are facing jurisdictional challenges from state regulators. Some prediction market operators have also had to address emerging geographic restrictions on sports event contracts.
FanDuel’s own prediction market, FanDuel Predicts, launched in the U.S. at the beginning of the year. FanDuel Predicts currently restricts its sports trading markets to 18 states, using GeoComply's technology to enforce geographic restrictions. While FanDuel Predicts was “not material” in parent company Flutter’s Q2 earnings report, prediction markets remain an area of focus for the company going forward.
“It is very early days, but we already expect to generate approximately $50 million of revenue from market-making this year, demonstrating both the good progress made so far, and the potential opportunity that exists in market-making,” outgoing Flutter CEO Peter Jackson said. “We will continue to build out this capability in the second half of the year.”
