DraftKings Introduces Arena Football League Daily Fantasy Contests
The Arena Football League has announced a partnership with DraftKings to offer new fantasy football contests for the 2019 AFL season, which kicks off Friday, April 26th.
The partnership comes along with several changes for the AFL this season, including the addition of two teams to the league — the Atlantic City Blackjacks, an expansion franchise, and the Columbus Destroyers, who return after last competing during the 2004-2008 seasons. This brings the total number of AFL squads to six. The AFL season is scheduled for 13 weeks, with each team receiving one bye week.
Like their other daily fantasy sports categories, DraftKings will offer both Classic and Showdown contests to DraftKings users.
DraftKings started by posting a guaranteed prize pool, commonly referred to as a GPP, for each contest mode. For the Classic mode, there’s the AFL $10K Launch, which is an 1176-person $10 buy-in, paying out the top 294 finishers with $2,000 of the $10,000 prize pool awarded to first place. The Showdown contest is a 235-person tournament with a $10 buy-in, paying $400 to the winner.
But unlike their other football products, both AFL contest modes will feature the same lineup requirements. Competitors in both modes will construct fantasy lineups of six players while designating a Captain spot to a player who will receive 1.5x the fantasy points.
In 2016 DraftKings had a similar partnership with the Canadian Football League, guaranteeing more than $100,000 in its first CFL contests, including their top contest with $50,000 in prize money. DraftKings continued to offer CFL contests through the 2018 season.
This time, it looks like the daily fantasy sports leader will be much more conservative in their early AFL offerings. And if the CFL is any clue, it’s unlikely that FanDuel will follow DraftKings’ lead into the niche DFS sport.