The US Federal Trade Commission has joined two US states to seek an injunction blocking the merger of Edinburgh spinout FanDuel with DraftKings.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking to block the agreed merger between US-based daily sports fantasy platforms DraftKings and FanDuel on competition grounds.
FanDuel, a University of Edinburgh spinout, and DraftKings operate broadly similar business models, running games where users can pick fantasy teams for each round of a sporting league and pay to enter a contest, winning money if their players perform best.
The companies, which between them have raised a total of approximately $1.05bn from a pool of investors including several media companies as well as US sporting leagues and teams, agreed in November 2016 to merge, in a deal that would have ended their ongoing commercial rivalry.
However, on Monday the FTC announced that, in tandem with the Offices of the Attorneys General in the State of California and the District of Columbia, it will file a complaint in a district court in order…
