The company opened its first sportsbook on July 14 at the Meadowlands horse racing track in New Jersey.fanduel

FanDuel Group wasted little time taking advantage of the market created by the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize sports betting.

The company was created when European bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair merged its U.S. operations with that of fantasy sports betting company FanDuel on July 11.

Three days later, on July 14, the FanDuel Group opened its first sportsbook at the Meadowlands horse racing track in New Jersey, taking bets on baseball, soccer, football, basketball, golf, boxing, motorsports and other sports. The merged venture operates in the U.S. under the FanDuel name.

Paddy Power Betfair, founded in Dublin in 1988, provides the experience and is one of the largest sportsbooks in Europe, where betting on sports has been legal for years. Its U.S. operations prior to the merger included ownership of horse racing wagering and television company TVG and an online casino in New Jersey. FanDuel, formed in 2009, was known for its fantasy sports game options for the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, golf, NASCAR, WNBA and the Premier League.

Executives thought a marriage of the companies could create a leader in the newly legal sports betting business in the U.S., according to FanDuel Group CEO Matt King and COO Kip Levin.

The Supreme Court on May 14 struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which prevented sports betting in most states. But Paddy Power Betfair and FanDuel had been discussing a merger since last year when the court decided to review the law.

Paddy Power had moved into the U.S. in 2016 by merging with London-based Betfair, which had entered the states seven years earlier by acquiring TVG.

King, who was the former CEO of FanDuel when it was a sole entity, said TVG and the New Jersey operations were among the assets that made Paddy Power Betfair an attractive merger partner, not to mention its expertise in gambling.

Matt King

Just as important, perhaps, was the fact that the executives of the two companies shared the same vision of the future of sports betting in the U.S., King said.

“Conversations started before we knew the way the Supreme Court was going to rule and part of what attracted me about the Paddy Power Betfair guys was the fact they believed in the market regardless of how the Supreme Court ruled — which was a view I had as well,” King said.

Kip Levin

“The national conversation around sports betting had clearly changed. We had a view that it was a ‘When?’ and not an ‘If?’ question.”

Both Levin and King agree that the two companies brought different, but complementary assets to the deal.

“On the FanDuel side, what we brought is brand,” King said. “We brought an avid fan base and a large scale user base.”

Levin said that when the Supreme Court agreed to hear the New Jersey case, the Paddy Power Betfair team started looking into brand awareness among sports fans in the U.S.

“Through that process we realized that a brand like FanDuel had a big advantage,” Levin said, noting that it had a fantasy business in front of mainstream U.S. sports fans for years and a large database of daily fantasy players. “They had a ubiquitous awareness among the customer segment we were going after,” he said.

Financial specifics of the deal were not announced. But Paddy Power Betfair, which is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, owns 60 percent of the newly formed private company; FanDuel investors, which include KKR, Shamrock Capital and Comcast, own 40 percent. In five years, Paddy Power Betfair has the right to buy the company in its entirety.

The combined business provided a presence across 45 states, 8 million customers, and $265 million in annual revenue from daily fantasy sports, horse racing wagering, and gaming.

FanDuel Group faces plenty of competition in the form of British bookmaker William Hill, fantasy sports company DraftKings, and the major casino companies.

For now, the company continues to focus on its fantasy products and the FanDuel Sports Book at the Meadowlands, and is working on plans for products at retail and online in New York and West Virginia, Levin said.

“Our strategy is to evaluate the space,” Levin said. “We are working on lobbying in the state legislatures we think are moving aggressively toward legalizing sports betting and as the states come on line, our view is we want to be everywhere.”

The merged venture is leveraging the FanDuel brand.fanduel