StarStreet
AcquiredTechstars '10Cambridge, US · Delaware corporation · 6 known investors
Boston sports stock market turned daily fantasy sports operator whose assets DraftKings acquired in August 2014.
Also known as StarStreet Inc.
Founders & leadership
Board
Investors · 6
Also in the syndicate · 3
Reported raises · per SEC filings
Form D private placements$4.4M disclosed across 2 of 3 rounds · 2011–2016
▶$873.7KraisedJan 2017 · 18 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
- Nicolo GiorgiDirector
- Jeremy LevineExecutive Officer, Director
- Greg BettinelliDirector
- Offering amount
- $1.5M
- Amount sold
- $873.7K
- First sale
- Nov 2016
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$3.5MraisedFeb 2015 · 8 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
- Greg BettinelliDirector
- Jeremy LevineExecutive Officer, Director
- Nicolo GiorgiDirector
- Offering amount
- $3.5M
- Amount sold
- $3.5M
- First sale
- Jan 2015
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
Source: SEC EDGAR Form D. Amounts as filed; amended filings shown once at their latest values.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026StarStreet was a real-money sports gaming company that began as a performance-based "sports stock market" platform. Users bought and sold shares in professional athletes across season-long markets, starting with the NFL and later adding NBA, MLB and an NCAA March Madness market. Player shares were introduced through "IPOs" conducted as blind Yankee auctions and were "retired" at the end of each season; the total value of each sport's market was constrained between IPO and retirement, making it a zero-sum market. Founder Jeremy Levine characterized the activity as investing rather than betting, describing it as a game of skill that does not depend on a single end outcome, and said the concept had been vetted by lawyers. The NCAA market was operated with play money only, both because amateur athletes' names were not in the public domain and because the elimination structure of the tournament returned invested money to the pool in a way the company considered too close to gambling.
The company subsequently shifted focus solely to daily fantasy sports (DFS), competing in the same Boston-based market as DraftKings. Its offering included a live-event finals package at the Playboy Mansion. In August 2014, DraftKings — which had acquired DraftStreet roughly a month earlier and simultaneously announced a $41 million Series C led by The Raine Group — acquired StarStreet's assets and shut the service down, transferring users to the DraftKings platform.
Founding story
StarStreet was founded in 2009 by Jeremy Levine and co-founder Nicolo Giorgi as a performance-based sports stock market platform, and was funded through the TechStars accelerator.
Business model
StarStreet operated a consumer real-money platform and monetized transactions rather than subscriptions: it took a 4 percent cut on the sale side of every trade in its sports stock markets, while charging no fees to buy and no fees for deposits or withdrawals (as of 2011). It later operated daily fantasy sports contests, including a live-event prize package hosted at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in which finalists competed for high-stakes cash prizes.
Transaction-fee based: a 4 percent commission on the sale side of each trade in its real-money sports stock markets, with no purchase, deposit or withdrawal fees reported as of March 2011.
Traction
As of March 2011, the founder declined to disclose revenue from the NBA market (the initial NFL market ran without fees as a test) but reported that about 25 percent of traders were active every day and over 50 percent were active almost every week since the real-money launch. By 2014 the company had a user base large enough that DraftKings' stated rationale for the acquisition was acquiring StarStreet's users, which were transferred to DraftKings' platform.
Latest developments
In August 2014 DraftKings acquired StarStreet's assets and migrated its users to the DraftKings platform, ending StarStreet's independent operation. At the time, StarStreet said it was not finished with daily fantasy sports and was shifting its focus to a mobile gaming solution for the category, while its founders moved on to other projects. The domain starstreet.com now resolves to unrelated Spanish-language content about illegal online betting sites and does not represent an operating StarStreet product.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
StarStreet was a smaller daily fantasy sports operator relative to market leaders DraftKings and FanDuel. It was one of two DFS competitors DraftKings absorbed in 2014 (alongside DraftStreet) as DraftKings consolidated users to expand its share of the daily fantasy market ahead of the NFL season.
StarStreet framed its product as skill-based investing rather than gambling, and argued its zero-sum market design (with a fixed total market value between player IPOs and end-of-season retirements, and blind Yankee auction IPOs giving all participants a chance to buy in) would succeed where earlier sports stock market attempts such as OneSeason had failed after a single season.
Technology
A real-money online trading platform for sports, with per-sport markets in which athlete shares are issued via blind Yankee auction "IPOs", traded during the season, and "retired" at season end within a fixed total market value; the company later ran daily fantasy sports contests and stated it intended to build a mobile daily fantasy gaming product.
Go-to-market
StarStreet acquired users directly through its consumer web platform, opening season-linked markets timed to the NFL, NBA, MLB and NCAA March Madness calendars, and used high-profile live finals events (the Playboy Mansion package) as a promotional draw for its daily fantasy contests. Coverage in technology and daily fantasy sports media (TechCrunch, RotoGrinders) accompanied its launches.
US consumers interested in sports gaming — fantasy sports players and sports fans willing to trade real money on athlete performance and to enter daily fantasy contests.
Geography
The company was based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, the same city as DraftKings; its markets covered US professional and college sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA), and it ran a live finals event at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.
History
StarStreet was founded in 2009 by Jeremy Levine and Nicolo Giorgi and went through the TechStars accelerator, graduating with the 2010 class; TechCrunch first covered the company in June 2010. Its first market was for the NFL, followed by an NBA market, and in March 2011 it added MLB and NCAA March Madness markets alongside a seed round. The company later shifted its focus away from the sports stock market model entirely to daily fantasy sports, operating out of Boston, Massachusetts. On August 25, 2014, DraftKings announced it had acquired StarStreet's assets; the site was shut down and its player accounts were migrated to DraftKings, while StarStreet's Playboy Mansion live-event contract was transferred to DraftKings' rival FanDuel. DraftKings acquired assets only, and the founders moved on to other projects, with StarStreet saying at the time it intended to work on a mobile gaming solution for daily fantasy sports.
Risks & controversies
StarStreet's core legal risk was the distinction between skill-based gaming and gambling. The company insisted its product was investing rather than betting and said lawyers had vetted the model; it nonetheless limited its NCAA March Madness market to play money because amateur athletes' names were not in the public domain and because the tournament's elimination structure returned pooled money in a way the founder considered too close to gambling. Prior attempts at the sports stock market model, such as OneSeason, had failed. The company ultimately ceased independent operation when its assets were sold to DraftKings in 2014.
Compiled by commissioned research from 4 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 4
launches, deals, and filingsDraftKings acquired StarStreet's assets (assets only, not the team), shutting the site down and migrating StarStreet player accounts onto the DraftKings platform, with the transfer reported to take effect the following Monday. StarStreet's founders moved on to other projects; the company indicated it was shifting focus toward a mobile gaming solution for daily fantasy sports.
StarStreet's Playboy Mansion finals event package, which sent finalists to a live event in Los Angeles competing for cash prizes, was transferred to DraftKings competitor FanDuel.
StarStreet opened two additional markets, an MLB market and an NCAA March Madness market. The NCAA market used play money only, because amateur athletes' names could not be used and the tournament structure raised gambling-law concerns; the company had previously run NFL and NBA markets.
StarStreet was among the 2010 TechStars graduating class; it was first covered by TechCrunch in June 2010.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
Legal entities · 1
corporate structureIn the news
▸Research sources · 4
primary sources listed
- StarStreetstarstreet.com · web
4 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does StarStreet do?
- Boston sports stock market turned daily fantasy sports operator whose assets DraftKings acquired in August 2014.
- Who are StarStreet's investors?
- StarStreet's investors include Techstars, SV Angel, The Chernin Group (TCG Crypto).
- How much funding has StarStreet raised?
- StarStreet has disclosed $4.4M raised across 2 of its 3 known rounds.
- Where is StarStreet headquartered?
- StarStreet is headquartered in Cambridge, US.