FanDuel culls 75% of Florida workforce

Daily fantasy sports (DFS) operator FanDuel has laid off dozens of employees at its Florida office amid growing legal and regulatory pressure.

FanDuel notified the state it would let go of 55 members of staff – representing around 75% of its workforce – on April 10, less than a year after hiring 40 former Zynga developers to its Orlando office.

Despite the cull, the office will remain open and will be staffed by around 20 customer service agents and members of its ‘talent team’.

In a statement, FanDuel said the firm had continued to grow last year “despite regulatory pressure” and planned to add to its customer services team in Florida.

“As we plan for the future, we are building out our customer service operations in Florida and will continue to hire for select roles throughout the company,” FanDuel said.

“We did have a group of developers in the Orlando office that were focused on R&D for ancillary games and applications that we will not be investing in moving forward,” the firm added.

FanDuel and rival DraftKings are locked in a growing number of legal battles in states that have ruled DFS meets the definition of illegal gambling under state law.