Fantasy sports are not only fun and games in Atlanta, but also a burgeoning business sector, with PrizePicks leading the charge in expansion and job creation; the fantasy sports outfit has announced they'll ramp up their operations in the Big Peach by adding a whopping 1,000 employees to their workforce over the next seven years, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta. The new positions, a mixed bag of software engineers, analysts, marketers, and other key roles, will fill the halls of a freshly leased office building northwest of downtown, codifying Atlanta's status as PrizePicks' flagship haven, the company founded in Atlanta, continues to assert its presence in the mobile sports entertainment sphere despite the cloudy legal environs of sports betting in Georgia.
The company, which already brags a headcount north of 500 full-timers and a fleet of 160 part-time workers, including an overseas regiment in the Philippines is doubling down on its home turf with this bold HQ gambit and spending to the tune of $25 million dollars for the privilege; "Atlanta has always been our home, where we are redefining mobile sports entertainment," PrizePicks co-founder and CEO Adam Wexler told KESQ in an evocative show of local pride.
While local legislators recently shut the door again on legalizing sports betting, PrizePicks plays within the letter of Georgia law, considering itself a game of skill, not chance, a distinction that allows it and others in the fantasy sports arena to sidestep gambling statutes. The company's over 5 million registered users can reel in cash prizes by forecasting the performance of athletes across a smorgasbord of contests, even when those challenges play out on fields as unorthodox as cornhole.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a man donning the Republican mantle, declared the city's talented university output and life-quality cred as bait for tech-driven firms like PrizePicks, citing Atlanta’s knack for tying down companies with its solid base of tech talent and slick infrastructure, though the specifics of what incentives the state dangled to sweeten the pot for PrizePicks have been kept hush-hush but suffice it to say, they could be looking at a juicy $17.5 million boost in state income tax credits, if those newly minted jobs pan out as planned.
