Formula One is targeting the lucrative U.S. fantasy sports market with the launch on Thursday of daily pay-to-play and traditional free F1 games in partnership with Dublin-based PlayON.

The sport, now owned by Liberty Media, said in a statement it had also acquired an equity stake in PlayON at a company valuation of 30 million pounds.

It is the first time Formula One, whose digital strategy includes a new F1 TV streaming offering due to go live next month, has bought into an external company.

F1’s director of digital and new business Frank Arthofer told Reuters the partnership would help attract a new and younger audience, particularly in key strategic markets, like the United States, and deepen engagement with existing fans.

“We’re launching with PlayON on their platforms and we’re also launching our own free-to-play game on our own platform today,” he said in a telephone interview.

“We’re optimistic that will have cascading positive impacts across the business.

“From a commercial perspective, clearly there’s a market place here and we have not traditionally played in this space and captured our share of value.”

Under the deal, live grands prix will be integrated into the PlayON platform via F1 TV in key markets.

“Daily fantasy is reasonably well established now in the U.S. market and given the regulatory infrastructure over there is somewhat settled now. We think it’s the right time to go in,” he said.

“With the backing of Formula One, we think there’s a lot of opportunity over there.”

PlayON is also the official daily fantasy sports (DFS) partner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in Europe, Latin America and Asia.