The company

Sleeper is a fantasy sports platform focused on bringing people together through sports and games. Since launching fantasy leagues in 2018, Sleeper has built a loyal base of millions of active users, earning itself a spot among the top 15 sports apps on the App Store. With its expansion into Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) in 2021, Sleeper unlocked new opportunities to foster connections among its players, resulting in industry-leading engagement and retention. Today, Sleeper is one of the fastest growing DFS platforms, backed by a16z with $67M in funding.

The challenge

Based on user feedback, Sleeper set out to launch DFS contests that offered a sense of community, similar to that of season-long fantasy leagues, with the opportunity for players to win real money. However, entering into the regulated DFS market presented challenges.

As DFS and contest of skill laws vary state-by-state, Sleeper needed a robust location compliance solution. To obtain any required licenses, Sleeper would need to reliably verify user locations within sanctioned boundaries and prevent contest entries from outside of state lines. This included the ability to detect attempts to circumvent location restrictions through the use of network proxies, location spoofing software, and other unauthorized means.

While Sleeper takes pride in its developer-first culture, the opportunity costs were too high to build these capabilities internally. When evaluating potential partners, Sleeper was looking for an accurate, cost-effective solution that shared its respect for developer experience. While alternative providers were expensive, challenging to integrate, and slow to respond, Radar offered a proven product, simple integration, and unparalleled support at a fraction of the cost.

The solution

Sleeper uses Radar to verify player locations and determine eligibility for its DFS contests. Radar’s technology processes over 100 billion API calls per year and has been validated by Gaming Labs International (GLI) to support location compliance. Radar’s scale and credibility made the decision easy.

With just a few lines of code, Sleeper installed Radar’s React Native SDK to enable precise location detection. In addition to location tracking, Radar provided tools to help Sleeper accurately interpret, validate, and action upon location data.

Sleeper uses Radar Regions and Fraud to verify the state in which a player is located. Regions leverages Radar’s admin boundary database to determine the country and state associated with a given location update. Fraud, which detects suspicious activity like GPS spoofing, proxy and VPN usage, and device tampering, can also be used alongside Regions to mark specific regions as allowed or denied based on local requirements.

The Radar dashboard provided Sleeper with the visibility it needed to test and launch quickly. Insight and easy access to prebuilt regional boundaries, user-level data, and event details simplified testing, enabled troubleshooting, and instilled confidence in real world behavior.

The results

Within a 2 month period, Sleeper completed development of its Radar-powered compliance solution. After passing 100% of the location checks in an independent audit, Sleeper was able to begin obtaining the necessary licenses to ensure the timely launch of its first DFS contests.

Today, Sleeper Picks and Daily Drafts are favorites among users looking to play DFS games with their friends, as well as a core revenue driver for Sleeper’s business. As nearly 16% of entry attempts are detected in restricted states and 2% of locations are flagged with a fraud indicator, accurate location verification is critical for Sleeper’s success.

As Sleeper continues to expand its games offering in the future, Radar will remain a trusted partner to ensure compliance with location-based regulations, prevent fraud, and provide engaging user experiences.