The NFL announced Thursday that it had signed up DraftKings as its first-ever Daily Sports Fantasy (DFS) partner. The partnership deal announcement came in the form of a press release on the NFL’s official website.
It quotes the NFL’S chief revenue officer Renie Anderson as saying that the NFL “is thrilled to partner with DraftKings.”
“They are clear leaders in the daily fantasy space. They continue to innovate and provide our millions of fans additional ways to interact with and enjoy the NFL.”
“Daily fantasy football has been a tremendous vehicle for fans of all types to deepen their engagement with the NFL.”
The partnership will give DraftKings access to NFL branding and logos for all DFS products and its various platforms. It will also give the DFS giant exclusive NFL sponsorship opportunities.
Place Your DraftKings Bets Here
The partnership deal gives DraftKings access to official NFL stats
According to the partnership deal, the NFL will give DraftKings access to its official statistics, highlights and other game-related materials across its many platforms.
And in addition, the NFL and DraftKings will work together on a wide variety of content and product offerings.
They will be available both on the DraftKings DFS app, as well as on multiple integrations across the NFL’s various media channels.
Since launching DFS in 2012, DraftKings has grown its user numbers nationwide and internationally to more than 11 million. This exceptional growth was made possible because it was unaffected by PASPA, the law which prohibited sports betting for decades.
DraftKings were greatly assisted by their huge DFS player-base when the Supreme Court kicked out PASPA In March 2018. So too were FanDuel, the US’s second-largest DFS giant at the time.
When sports betting became legal in New Jersey a month later, large numbers of their DFS users moved into sports betting. Some left DFS behind, but many didn’t.
DFS still extremely popular
DFS is still extremely popular nationwide, notably in those states that have not as yet legalized sports betting. And you can count populous California, Texas and Florida among them
Not unexpectedly FanDuel and DraftKings are today the dominant front-runners of the US sports betting revolution being led by New Jersey.
Thirteen US states have legalized sports betting. More are busy doing it after noting that New Jersey had netted well over 2 billion dollars in betting handle in its first year of wagering.
DraftKings has already moved into some of them, Pennsylvania being one of them, West Virginia another. More are on the way. Clearly it sees its nationwide presence in DFS as giving it a big start-up advantage over rival sportsbooks.
Yes, FanDuel will also have this advantage. That is surely why DraftKings has sought a partnership deal with the NFL, the US’s most popular professional sport.
The rub-offs from its NFL deal could help give it the biggest footprint in the new states legalizing sportsbooks.
