Yahoo is hoping to help its struggling advertising business with a foray into legal online gambling, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The tech giant on Wednesday unveiled an updated version of its fantasy-sports app that allows users to bet money each day and each week with friends. There are also larger online tournaments that users can play, and Yahoo (YHOO) will collect 10% of the players’ entry fees, the report said.
“It is an interesting first foray for us with fantasy sports,” Kathy Savitt, Yahoo’s chief marketing officer, told the newspaper. “Different models of monetization lead to a better consumer experience than others.”
The new game works like this: A user deposits funds to set a lineup of players who will play that day. They earn points based on the real-life performance of those players and the users with the most points collect money. The difference from traditional “season-long” fantasy sports is that the next day, everything resets and users can set an entirely new lineup for the day.
The fantasy sports industry in the U.S. is booming, the newspaper said, with over 56 million expected to play in North America this year. The Fantasy Sports Trade Association says players spend $465 million total each year on fantasy sports, according to the Journal.
