American sports betting giant DraftKings [DKNG] has announced on 7th March partnering with digital asset startup Zero Hash to become a Polygon validator. This collaboration would make DraftKings one of the Ethereum layer 2’s largest governors, a plan which has been in the works since October. Speaking about the same, Paul Liberman, the company’s global tech and product president, stated,
“Participating in validation supports DraftKings’ broader strategy of building out a robust, sustainable, trustworthy and decentralized infrastructure to help future-proof aspects of our business in the Web 3 era.”
With respect to its collaborating partner, Zero Hash has recently developed a suite of staking products that provide complete back-end API infrastructure and regulatory framework for companies to earn rewards on crypto and fiat holdings in the U.S.
Besides that, the business-to-business service provider helps integrate crypto and non-fungible tokens into its clients’ platforms. The company raised a $105 million Series D in January.
As of late, Polygon has become something of a hotbed for sports collectible platforms in search of low-fee, fiat-compatible marketplaces. In addition to that, the scalability solution built on top of Ethereum is home to the National Football League’s ticket collectible experiment along with one of the sport’s marketplaces launched in partnership with Sports Illustrated.
As per Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot, by comparison, Polygon netted $47.5 million in sales volume in February, which was down 20% from its previous month and 80% from its all-time monthly volume high of $224 million in February 2021.
Draftkings revenue sales raked $44M in sales
Since its debut, DraftKings’ marketplace has released 116 NFT collections grossing $44 million in sales revenue, according to a representative. The platform’s top sale was a unique Tiger Woods collectible, sold for $70,000 in October.
However, DraftKings stocks valued at nearly $20 billion on the public market fell after an Argus Research analyst John Staszak recently downgraded it to Hold from Buy. Staszak said that he anticipates that the gambling firm would face tough competition and expects slow revenue growth in response to regulatory headwinds. Meanwhile, the company has not yet responded to the rating cut.