For the second consecutive year, Underdog Fantasy made LinkedIn’s Top 50 Startups list. The up-and-coming sports gaming and media company was No. 15 this year.
Underdog Fantasy was founded in 2020. Some of its initial investors include Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur Mark Cuban, NFL quarterback Jared Goff, NBA MVP Kevin Durant, and veteran sports journalist Adam Schefter.
Underdog is one of the fastest-growing sports gaming and media companies in the country. It now offers its sports fantasy platform in 41 states. And like the market leaders DraftKings and FanDuel, Underdog is starting to extend its operations into sports betting. Underdog launched its first sports betting app in North Carolina and is looking to grow that business in the foreseeable future.
Strategically, Underdog’s migration to sports betting makes sense. While legalized sports betting is now prevalent in the United States, DFS operates in somewhat of a grey zone. As such, DFS operators have had to retool their operations to appease regulators, just as Underdog recently did in Kansas. But change and innovation are part of Underdog’s DNA, which is just one reason why Underdog is on LinkedIn’s Top 50 Startups list.
“Underdog was founded with innovation at its core, and we have a relentless focus on one mission: Build new products that make sports more fun for fans, and we are building faster and faster every day,” Underdog founder and CEO Jeremy Levine said of the honor.
Drawing interest
To be eligible for LinkedIn’s list, companies must be independent, privately held, have 50 or more full-time employees, be five years old or younger, and headquartered in the United States. LinkedIn’s rankings are based on four criteria: employee growth, jobseeker interest, member engagement within the company and its employees, and incoming talent from LinkedIn’s Top Companies list. In other words, these are the startups people are willing to quit their established jobs to join.
On that point, a number of innovators and sports gaming veterans from top operators joined Underdog recently.
“We are seeing the results, and so are those in the industry who know, which is why we’ve seen a flood of top talent from some of the biggest companies in our industry and beyond come to Underdog in the last year,” Levine said. “We are extremely proud of what we have built and this recognition from LinkedIn is a testament to the work put in by everyone at Underdog.”
