Hundreds of jobs for the ATL
FanDuel has announced that it will build a new $15m technology hub in Atlanta, Georgia. The sports betting and daily fantasy sports giant announced Tuesday that it will locate its 68,000-square-foot campus in Midtown. The company expects to hire more than 900 people for the Atlanta office over the next five years.
The positions will be in information technology, user experience, user interface design, software engineering, and product development. To help ramp things up, FanDuel will launch programs targeting the state’s colleges and universities (both public and private), historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), for which Atlanta is well known, and other non-collegiate educational/vocational programs.
Atlanta provided FanDuel with a winning combination”?
“During this process, it became clear that Atlanta provided FanDuel with a winning combination of access to a thriving tech cluster, respected educational institutions we could partner with, and a diverse and welcoming community eager for our arrival,” FanDuel CPO Sarah Butterfass said.
FanDuel’s local and state initiatives will also provide training for those aiming to get into the technology industry and work with local communities to give people job interview and resume skills.
Sports betting bills stalled in Georgia
While FanDuel’s technology campus will certainly be a boon to Atlanta’s and Georgia’s economy, the irony of the situation is that sports betting is not currently legal in the state. Thus, employees in the Atlanta office won’t even be able to play on their own site (employees aren’t allowed to play on the company’s DFS site, anyway).
Some state lawmakers have been trying to get sports betting legalized in Georgia for several years, but nothing has come to fruition. Things came close this year, as a pair of sports betting bills passed the Senate, only to stall in the House.
The bills went back and forth between committees and the House floor, initially held up by the more conservative Republican members who were against gambling expansion, despite the bills being introduced by Republicans. In the end, though, it was Democrats who played the role of spoiler as a retaliation of sorts for the Republican-championed elections bill that implemented a slew of voter suppression initiatives in the state in response to unfounded voter fraud conspiracy theories. Though the bills made it to the House floor, they were never voted upon before the House adjourned for the year.
FanDuel still eyeing IPO
Atlanta would be the sixth city in which FanDuel has a corporate office, joining New York, Orlando, Los Angeles, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. FanDuel also has other offices with job openings in Oregon and New Jersey. Some Atlanta positions are already listed on FanDuel’s website, including postings for software engineers of different levels, data engineers, security analysts and engineers, and more.
Flutter announced in late April that an IPO would not include Fox Bet and PokerStars
In March, FanDuel’s parent company, Flutter Entertainment, announced that it was considering spinning off FanDuel with an initial public offering (IPO). Flutter announced in late April that an IPO would not include Fox Bet and PokerStars, both of which it owns.
Things have gotten more complicated recently with Flutter’s dispute with Fox over the value of Fox’s option to buy an 18.6% stake in FanDuel. Flutter says it should be based on fair market value, which is almost certainly quite high right now (DraftKings’ stock has soared over the past year and FanDuel is the number one operator in terms of US sports betting market share), but Fox believes the price should be lower.
In addition, FanDuel announced last week that CEO Matt King will soon leave the company after guiding FanDuel through the post-PASPA environment. FanDuel has said that his departure could affect the timing of a possible public listing.