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Another daily fantasy sports (DFS) site – or should we say sites, plural – bites the dust. The iTEAM Network announced yesterday that it is shutting down. Customers of the network’s sites should not have anything to fear, though, as a network representative confirmed to LegalSportsReport.com that player funds were kept separate from operating funds (as they should have been) and everyone will be able to cash out just fine.

This is just another example of a small DFS operator having trouble competing. DraftKings and FanDuel are the two monsters of the industry, owning more than 90 percent of the pie, so trying to push that rock up the mountain is not easy for just about anyone else except for maybe Yahoo!. When the two big boys have guaranteed prize pool (GPP) contests with total prize pools well into the six-figure and even seven-figure range, it is tough to attract players to contests that might max out in the low six-figure range, if that.

This writer personally has enjoyed the smaller sites, but of course, one that I played at went under and the other stopped offering services to most states. Small DFS sites present an interesting dilemma. For many players, smaller GPP’s don’t necessarily matter; just like in poker, not everyone plays big tournaments. The question for some in deciding whether or not to sign up with a small site is not so much player traffic, but the level of competition. On the one hand, small sites often have very soft competition, as the best players go for the top prizes at DraftKings and FanDuel. On the other hand, it is often only the most dedicated DFS players that hear about these sites (ever see one advertise on ESPN?), so the competition can sometimes be quite stiff.

DraftKings and FanDuel recently announced that they have agreed to merge, pending regulatory approval, in 2017. This sounds terrible for the smaller DFS providers, but they do have hope that a couple things could happen that would actually help them. First, the legal environment for daily fantasy in the United States is full of terrors and so far, it has been the two industry leaders who have fought the battles. Their combination could help clear the way for their competitors, who couldn’t otherwise afford the lobbying and legal costs. Second, a significant percentage of DraftKings and FanDuel customers have accounts on both sites. After the merger, they will need to seek out other sites if they want to keep some diversity in their play. Enter the smaller competitors to scoop up some of that action.

The iTEAM Network made headlines in early 2016 when poker pro Phil Ivey announced that he was going to launch a site on the network. PhilIveyDFS, as it was called, never went anywhere. Dan Bilzerian also had a site on the network.

The iTEAM Network looked like it was making inroads in the hardcore DFS community, as one of its sites, Rosters.com, has been involved in promotional partnerships with Rotogrinders.com, the leading DFS hub and strategy site, but obviously any success it may have had couldn’t save the network.

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