DraftKings Begins Partnership with the Patriots
If you had told me professional sports teams would eventually be sponsoring or partnering with Daily Fantasy sites when I first discovered the industry, I (and many others) would have called you crazy. Fast forward a few short years, and we have the MLB, NFL and NBA involved with the industry in some capacity, and it’s only going to grow as leagues and teams become more comfortable with the idea of endorsing the public having a monetary rooting interest in their players. Many of us have been ashamed of ourselves for watching Bucks/Sixers, Padres/Rockies and Jaguars/Titans games start to finish, but the reason we do so is simple; we care about the outcome because it effects our bankrolls. There is no real reason for people who aren’t fans of those teams to tune in (and as a life-long Sixers fan, even that isn’t enough sometimes), but leagues are finally warming up to the industry because they are alertly aware of the added interest it will bring.
The big news today was that Boston-based DraftKings has partnered with their home-town team, the New England Patriots. I don’t think there is anyone happier about this then RG-favorite Mr. Ethan Haskell (ex-Team-RG, now part of the DK team), as he now has even more reason to root for his ultimate man-crush in Tom Brady. His desk in Nashville was literally decked out in nothing but photos of Brady. Back to business..
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the details are relatively simple: DraftKings gets advertising space on the Patriots official website and fantasy football scores will be displayed at Gillette Stadium in the form of LED signs. This deal is different from some of the other partnership’s we’ve seen between Daily Fantasy sites and professional sports leagues in that it’s basically just straight advertising (as opposed to DraftKings being an official sponsor). The NFL is allowing DFS sites to advertise with teams this year, but the sites can’t use official marks or designations in the process. Things work a little differently with other leagues, such as the NBA. FanDuel has a sponsorship with the Orlando Magic that will allow them to use official marks/designations, and if you tune into one of Orlando’s game this season, you’ll be seeing a lot of the FanDuel logo.
To be clear, this is still excellent news for the industry. Professional sports teams/leagues were somewhat slow to embrace Daily Fantasy, and DraftKings having a relationship like this with a team in the NFL (the most popular daily fantasy sport, by far) will only lead to growth for DraftKings and the industry as a whole. This past baseball season, the Boston-based site signed a sponsorship deal with Major League Baseball, which led to daily-focused articles on the league’s official site. They also had two of our own (stlcardinals84 and louiscards) throw out the first pitch at a St. Louis Cardinals game towards the back end of the regular season. As a larger portion of the professional sports world becomes involved with the daily side of fantasy sports, we’ll start to see more and more fresh names in user bases. Of the large number of people playing fantasy sports (whether it’s daily or season-long), our industry still consists of a small percentage of that total; the room for growth remains immense!