DraftKings intends to close its upcoming Series D round of venture capital funding within the next couple of weeks, according to sources. Fox Sports will play a significant role in the round, and like rival FanDuel, the round will be for well in excess of $200M and give Boston-based DraftKings a valuation in the neighborhood of $1B. Meanwhile, DraftKings scored a 21 Net Promoter Score in a recent survey of the daily fantasy sports market by Anaheim-based Eilers Research. Net Promoter Score, operating on a scale of negative 100 to positive 100, is a customer loyalty measurement of how likely a brand is to be promoted to others by consumers. Widely beloved properties and consumer brands such as the NFL, Apple and Amazon, each have Net Promoter Scores of at least 50, suggesting that DraftKings still has a long way to go in building brand advocacy among its players. But the company’s score was far higher than FanDuel’s 2, which suggests that its company’s number of promoters and detractors essentially are equal. The Eilers Research report also showed that the majority of daily fantasy sports players spend at least five hours per week engaging in research and many in excess of 10 hours per week, are predominantly aged 25-35, are 98% male, and 59% of daily fantasy players earn at least $75,000 per year.
