A fantasy-sports upstart traded salary caps for the pleasure of picking players. Its sale promised a bigger stage; its closure showed who controls the curtain.
Sleeper is a social-first fantasy sports and gaming platform that lets friends draft, trade, chat, and compete across the NFL, NBA, soccer, esports and more, all inside one mobile app. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Las Vegas, Sleeper grew to millions of active users with zero ad spend by treating fantasy sports as a place to hang out with friends rather than a transactional web tool. It has since expanded into daily fantasy 'Picks' and prediction markets.