FanDuel strengthens executive team with dual promotion

FanDuel has promoted two long-standing C-level employees to the positions of president and chief commercial officer. Chief legal officer Christian Genetski, who has been with the US sportsbook market leader since February 2015, has advanced to the role of president of FanDuel. In his new role as president, Genetski will be responsible for FanDuel’s business development, partnership, corporate strategy and government affairs units. He will also be responsible for driving FanDuel’s vision and execution of strategic partnerships and new business initiatives to extend the company’s leadership position in the US. In his previous role as chief legal officer, Genetski played a role in the growth of FanDuel’s DFS business, brokering an agreement with New York’s Attorney General to legalize and regulate DFS, an agreement which paved the way for DFS to expand into 20 more states. He has also worked on FanDuel’s efforts to expand sports betting into 15 other states, most recently spearheading FanDuel’s part of the California initiative aimed at enabling sports betting, which is due to be contested in a November ballot. In tandem with the appointment of Genetski, FanDuel has promoted chief marketing officer Mike Raffensperger to the newly created role of chief commercial officer (CCO). Raffensperger, who has been with FanDuel since January 2018, has led the growth of the operator’s US marketing strategy, inking deals with a number of high-profile sports teams and media personalities. He has also overseen the development of the firm’s customer acquisition strategy. In his new role as CCO, Raffensperger will oversee revenue generation across FanDuel’s sportsbook, casino, racing, daily fantasy and free-to-play platforms. The new position significantly expands Raffensperger’s previous duties as CMO to include a commercial element, which had previously been overseen by group CEO Amy Howe. In addition, he will also assume oversight of FanDuel’s content and programming assets including the company’s TVG cable network. Speaking about the twin promotion, FanDuel CEO Howe labelled the contribution made by the pair to FanDuel’s success as a “seminal” one. “Each have helped nurture and evolve FanDuel from innovative upstart to the dominant market leader in sports betting and igaming. I am delighted to expand their roles as we continue into the future,” Howe explained. “Keeping Christian’s deep institutional knowledge within FanDuel was critically important to me.” Howe continued: “In his expanded role, Christian’s expert voice will impact decisions that are vital to creating a sustainable long-term business, while providing critical continuity for FanDuel to thrive in the future. “Similarly, Mike’s leadership of our revenue-producing commercial units and marketing is a structure we believe best positions us for growth and reflects how important his performance has been to our success,” she added.