SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Competitive eSports operator Vulcun has announced that it will no longer offer real money daily fantasy games from January 14th.
An onsite blog post stated: “After careful consideration (and much heartache), we’ve decided to phase out paid fantasy on Vulcun. Once the new season of the LCS begins on January 14th, 2016, we will no longer offer paid contests on Vulcun.” 
It was also noted that this will solely affect the real money aspect, and that “Gold betting, Gold Fantasy Contests, Marketplace, Lootdrop, and Jackpot will all continue on as normal.”
Customers were informed by email that they must complete withdrawals by February 5th, or else any funds in their accounts will be converted to the on-site currency of ‘gold’.
This decision comes during a period of turmoil for daily fantasy sports in the USA, and the blog statement mentioned this: “Rather than trying to figure this situation out state by state, we’ve decided to focus our energies on things that ALL our users can enjoy vs. those in select geographies. We’re sad to see (paid) fantasy go, but ultimately it allows us to focus on building a better product that serves our mission.”
Vulcun, which launched in January 2015, quickly increased its prize pools for the paid contests. Having originally guaranteed payouts of $250,000 for the calendar year this escalated to $10m by May. This was partly due to the fact that it raised $12m in investment funding in April 2015.
Vulcun stressed that it will continue to offer fans serious eSports engagement, and that last month only 10% of its users took part in paid fantasy contests.
The statement concluded: “Our focus going forward is making Vulcun the premier place to win in-game virtual items. We’re going to be making some exciting announcements in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned.”
