Amaya launches new daily fantasy sports operation

The Montreal-based online gambling group Amaya Inc., has wasted no time in re-branding and relaunching its Victiv daily fantasy sports betting acquisition (see previous report) under the new identity StarsDraft, which launched Thursday.

Amaya has retained the services of the experienced original management of Victiv in its venture into the booming DFS sector, although it is also integrating the operational expertise of Amaya and PokerStars through several areas of the business.

Although players cannot initially use their Pokerstars log-ins to access StarsDraft, the company says that a single sign-on functionality is being developed.

Players in the five states that have defined DFS as illegal –  Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana and Washington –  are denied access to the new site, and in addition StarsDraft has taken the precaution of excluding Michigan, which Our readers will recall was in the news earlier this week when the state regulator said he felt DFS was illegal.

Existing Michigan players on Victiv have been given three months to close their accounts.

Amaya, which is based in Canada, is clearly not taking any chances in regard to that market, either; it has also excluded Canadian action from StarsDraft amid speculation that it has bigger fish to fry in the Great White North.

The company also appears to be taking a cautious approach to marketing, and advertising in particular. In a sector in which the market leaders are committing tens of millions in adspend, Amaya appears to have taken, at least for now, a more conservative and diverse course in promoting awareness of its new venture.

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