
Billion Dollar Fantasy
The High-Stakes Game Between FanDuel and DraftKings That Upended Sports in America
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Narrated by:
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Chris Abell
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By:
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Albert Chen
About this listen
The story of the rise of daily fantasy sports, and the brilliant entrepreneurs disrupting the way we consume sports
The inside story of the rise, fall, and rise of FanDuel and DraftKings - two companies that began as obscure startups and, seemingly overnight, became billion dollar companies, and just as quickly found themselves the target of the FBI and Department of Justice and the center of a national scandal.
Veteran sportswriter Albert Chen draws on candid, unprecedented interviews with every key player in tech, sports, gambling, and the fantasy leagues to create a breakneck narrative around a group of entrepreneurs, players, and gamblers. Billion Dollar Fantasy recounts the origins of modern gambling and fantasy sports in America, and follows the unlikely rise of the fantasy sports world through the lens of the two startups at the center of the story.
For fans of The Big Short,The Facebook Effect, or Bringing Down the House, this book tells the tale of a culture of risk, hubris, greed, redemption, and a group of larger-than-life characters trying to make sense of the complex new world they've created.
©2019 Albert Chen (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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What listeners say about Billion Dollar Fantasy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-25-19
Fascinating insight into a disruptive new industry
Daily Fantasy Sports took the sports world by storm and accelerated the move to legalizing sports gambling in the US. This tells that story through the lens of important individuals during that rise. I enjoyed this very much. I would have given 5 stars if they had not included the DFS pro. I understand why he was included, but his story was a distraction, instead of a supporting narrative.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-01-19
incredible untold story behind the scenes
Albert Chen does an excellent job detailing and documenting the different aspects and people behind the modern industry of daily fantasy sports along with humanizing a cold, volatile industry
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- TimBuck2
- 11-25-22
Interesting peek into sports betting world
Fascinating view on how a tiny startup in Scotland turned into a sports betting giant.
Nice listen, recommend!
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- Kindle Customer
- 04-13-21
Captivating Storytelling!
You can really tell that the narrator really cared out the quality of the reading to bring the characters to life! Highly recommended!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Tomba
- 02-11-21
strong start weak finish
rise of daily fantasy and how just breaking laws using tec is the way to make a bunch of money. Last half of the book is searching for an ending that never delivers.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Nicolas C. Lange
- 11-25-20
Exceptional - inspiration for entrepreneurs
The depth of research, elegance of writing and compelling performance make this a must listen for founders and business leaders.
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- Yasser
- 01-29-21
history of fantasy
great story you can follow along perfectly on a jog or bike ride. how a group of dreamers disrupt the sport world.
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1 person found this helpful
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- LSmith
- 03-03-22
Good audiobook on sports betting
This was a very interesting story on the beginnings of the two biggest sports books, Draftkings and FanDuel. Never knew that one got its start in Scotland and some of the stories sound straight out of The Wolf of Wall Street. Not the most interesting subject for an audiobook, but the narration was also good enough to keep me interstates. A 4 star audiobook.
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- Max Richard Wolpoff
- 12-31-21
Good story, average narrator
I enjoyed the book in total, but had to lower the narration speed because the narrator was too fast. He mispronounced a few things, and the story assumed too much knowledge of each reader.
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