The Fantasy Sports Trade Association announced this week that is set to widen its mission by bringing the US sportsbook industry in under its wing
And this despite the fact that the Daily Sports Fantasy (DSF) industry competes for the same kind of customers as does the sports betting business.
Sports-betting has been growing at a pace since the nation-wide ban on this form of betting was lifted by the Supreme Court in the first half of last year.
At the end of December after just six months trading, its handle in New Jersey had already exceeded one billion dollars
FSTA president Paul Charchian said that in making place for the sportsbook industry and renaming his Association, the Fantasy Sport and Gaming Association his body was fulfilling a mandate to “adapt or die”.
Charles Gillespie, founder and CEO of the Gambling.com Group and an advisor to the FTSA, agreed the partnership was crucial for the DFS industry.
He was quoted by Gambling.com as saying: “The growth rates in sports betting are remarkable and are basically going to continue to be remarkable for the foreseeable future. Fantasy on the other hand is basically flat,”
“I think for the FSTA to remain relevant, there’s been a push from the top to embrace sports betting because that’s where all the excitement and growth moving forward is likely to come from.”
The nation’s two biggest DFS operators DraftKings and FanDuel will clearly applaud FSTA’s move to join hands with sports betting.
The Fantasy giants have both been so successfully in combining their strongly-established DFS brands with sports betting, there is a strong possibility that they in fact played an important role in inspiring the FSTA move
Their resources, multi-million-strong Fantasy membership lists and their understanding of sports gamers clearly had a lot to do with the fact that after the first six months of legal sports betting in New Jersey, they were the State’s clear-cut sportsbook market leaders
And this despite the fact that lined up against them were hugely successful international sportsbook operators of the calibre of William Hill, BetStars, and 888sports.
On The Flip Side
The fledgling sportsbook industry can gain a lot by linking up with the FSTA.
One of their most important gains will be the FSTA’s wisdom and experience in dealing with the many and varied state legislation issues the sportsbook industry will encounter as it attempts to grow.
Spearheaded by New Jersey, the state that led the Supreme Court fight for sports betting and then become the first of them to legalize it, there are currently some two-dozen states that have either already introduced it or, as with the District Columbia, are currently working to legalize it.
Gillespie believes the sports betting industry faces “an enormous task if it is to properly educate policy-makers and legislators across the United States on what sports betting is all about.
“Many state policy-makers didn’t understand gambling,” he said. “And the FSTA would hopefully make a lot of progress in terms of educating the right people in the right places about how the industry works so they can make intelligent decisions about how to tax it, regulate it and monitor it.”
The FSTA had helped 20 states to pass sports fantasy laws, he said.
“That’s pretty good. If we get 20 states to pass intelligent sports betting laws, then, boy, we’ve got an exciting couple of years ahead of us.”
