Exclusive: Verse Fantasy raises $1.1m pre-seed round

Verse Fantasy, the platform that allows season-long fantasy players to win real-money on weekly matchups, announced a $1.1 million pre-seed round led by Frontstage Ventures.

Daniel Zimmerman, co-founder and CEO of Verse Fantasy, broke news of the new funding on E127 of The Betting Startups Podcast (YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts):

Standing out from the crowd

Verse Fantasy enters a crowded DFS landscape, but it’s far from a me-too product.

It allows players of season-long fantasy to compete on a weekly basis for real-money, bringing both game formats into a singular experience.

When asked about entering such a competitive category, Dan said that he views it as validation.

“That competitiveness signals its popularity. Fantasy football is the most popular game in America, and dominates the culture. Verse Fantasy is a really cool blend of fantasy football and sports gaming, which isn’t offered anywhere else in the market.”

Getting the word out

Dan recognized early that Verse couldn’t compete with the large marketing budgets of leafing DFS platforms, and decided to build and grow the Verse brand organically through content.

Creating and distributing content proved so effective for Verse Fantasy that Dan recently announced the launch of Verse Media as a new line of business.

“The reason we launched Verse Media is to serve as Verse Fantasy’s own affiliate. Verse Media has done over 500 million views of its content last year, received over 20 million likes, and hundreds of thousands of shares, which creates that brand recognition.”

As for how that engagement is converting into Verse Fantasy users, Dan is encouraged.

“In terms of customer acquisition, live streaming specifically has been a sweet spot for us. We are seeing over 10,000 views every single night on our live streams at this point, which convert like crazy to signups.”

Entering the era of “DFS 3.0”

Dan’s thesis is that we are currently entering a period of “DFS 3.0”, with products like Verse Fantasy leading the charge into this new era.

“Any veteran to the fantasy industry might scoff at a 26 year old prophesizing about the industry, but I've done my homework,” says Dan.

“DFS 1.0 was DraftKings and Fanduel really setting the legislative bar for this industry, and defining it as a game of skill.”

DFS 2.0 then emerged following the repeal of PASPA in 2018. “We saw this blowing up of against-the-house, single-player fantasy concepts that have gone on to be extremely successful, extremely viral, and beloved by their user bases for the most part.”

And with some recent headwinds in the player-versus-house model, Dan believes the industry is now progressing into its next phase.

“DFS 3.0 is a natural evolution of the industry to bring the beloved features from DFS 2.0 into the regulatory framework established by DFS 1.0.”

Dan believes “the industry is not done re-regulating”, thus creating an opening for Verse to grab market share as a DFS 3.0 operator.

“I think we are really interested in pursuing markets where some of our competitors have recently had things change up on them, and I think that provides an interesting opportunity”.

The long road to ‘yes’

In announcing Verse’s Fantasy $1.1m pre-seed round on the Betting Startups Podcast, Dan shed some light on his experience getting the deal done.

He was quick to point out that fundraising is a longer process than many entrepreneurs might realize, and that investors are not making investment decisions after just one meeting.

“We heard a thousand no's, but some of those no's turned into yeses once we proved ourselves over time. It feels awful to hear an investor say they're not interested, but you also need to understand the context that you give them is one moment. Then nine months later when you are performing very well, maybe you pivoted, maybe you made a change, that nine months of evaluation is actually what they're grading you on.”

Because of that, Dan says an important lesson based on his journey is to start early.

“Plant as many seeds as possible, start the evaluation in as many people's minds, and then let them start to make an opinion. They can think you're bad. They can think you're good, but if they've never heard of you, they don't think much of you.”

With the new funding, Dan and his team are gearing up for a big NFL season ahead.

Verse Fantasy users can expect to see product integrations with RotoWire and FantasyPros, and of course an increase in the volume of content being produced by Verse Media.

As for what a successful NFL season looks like for Dan?

“In short, I think a successful season would be after the season, you've heard of us, right?”

Download and play Verse Fantasy now

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