DraftKings and FanDuel "have found eager partners in NFL teams, even as the league remains a staunch opponent of sports betting," according to Drape & Belson of the N.Y. TIMES. DraftKings on Tuesday announced wide-ranging sponsorships with 12 more NFL teams, "matching the efforts" of FanDuel, which "already had deals" with 16 teams. While NFL league-level execs "have a long-held position against sports gambling and have kept a distance" from the daily fantasy sports (DFS), the league "has done nothing to stop individual teams from diving in." Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones and Patriots Owner Robert Kraft even "have stakes in DraftKings." The Patriots also "have built the DraftKings Fantasy Sports Zone in Gillette Stadium," and the Jaguars "opened FanDuelVille." Jaguars Owner Shahid Khan said, "Fantasy football is a huge part of how fans enjoy the NFL, and that’s not going to change." Drape & Belson note most of the DFS money "has come from an enormous amount of investment by some of the biggest hedge funds and media companies, including some that broadcast NFL games." Neither FanDuel nor DraftKings "has made a profit, but media companies envision a day when sports betting is legal nationally and FanDuel and DraftKings can provide an online home for it." Right now, however, DFS "may be pushing the boundaries" with regard to federal law on gambling (N.Y. TIMES, 9/17).
GAMBLING BY ANOTHER NAME? In DC, Drew Harwell notes as people sign up on DFS sites, lawmakers "have increasingly raised a critical question dogging one of the Internet’s fastest-growing gaming empires: Is it legal?" Data from gaming analysis firm Eilers Research shows that DFS "could attract more annual player spending than Las Vegas’s sports books" by '16. Eilers Research Managing Dir of Digital & Interactive Gaming Adam Krejcik said of DFS sites, "They’ve become these very visible, trending targets, and clearly they’re on a very close line between what’s considered gambling and what’s not." Harwell notes some analysts "worried that the advertising flood threatened to drive potential players away." But DraftKings CEO & co-Founder Jason Robins said that the company "still has an onslaught of marketing planned for American airwaves," and that plan is built to attract the 95% of fantasy sports players who have not yet tried DraftKings (WASHINGTON POST, 9/17). The NATIONAL POST's Scott Stinson writes it is "strange" to see leagues, "which have always treated gambling as the scarlet-letter-wearing black sheep of the family ... suddenly embrace daily fantasy with both arms." But all of the visibility "leads to one question: how long can this possibly last?" Stinson: "Is everyone just going to pretend this isn’t gambling?" In the short term, the answer is "clearly, yes." The leagues "see a way to increase interest in their product, and they don’t mind the revenue that the sites are paying them." Yet they are "somehow at peace with daily fantasy because they buy the argument that it is a game of skill, not chance" (NATIONAL POST, 9/17).
