Sports-betting firm DraftKings to become a full validator for the Polygon network

DraftKings, a sports-betting company with a $20 billion market capitalization, announced Monday that it will become a full validator for the Polygon Network, an Ethereum-based scaling platform. 

DraftKings Marketplace, an ecosystem that focuses specifically on NFTs, will launch a node on the Polygon Network to authenticate transitions using a proof-of-stake consensus protocol — reducing the carbon and monetary cost of each transaction. This marketplace has previously used Polygon.

“Scalability and sustainability remain among the critical challenges of blockchain technology, so as we lay the groundwork today for the vision of DraftKings Marketplace tomorrow, the vast insights and proven products from Polygon around scalable solutions are invaluable,” said Paul Liberman, co-founder and president of global product and technology at DraftKings, in a statement.

In late August of this year, DraftKings collaborated with the Tom Brady-backed NFT marketplace Autograph to launch Preseason Access Collection, a marketplace for NFT collectibles from famous athletes such as the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and U.S. gymnast Simone Biles. 

Ethereum’s fees have been high since September of 2021, The Block’s data shows, adding between $20 and $40 to each transaction. The high fees, coupled with the environmental impact of every transaction, have urged some users to move away from Ethereum toward different, cheaper blockchains such as Solana and now Polygon.