DraftKings yesterday "pulled its advertising from ESPN" after the daily fantasy sports company "became engulfed in questions this week about possible insider trading," according to Brent Schrotenboer of USA TODAY. An ESPN spokesperson said DraftKings "made the decision to pull their advertising for [yesterday], which we have obliged." It was "not clear if the programming will be pulled" going forward. Meanwhile, ESPN "made a separate decision to scale back on DraftKings sponsorship graphics and language within its programming." This included sponsorship of specific programming, "often followed by the tagline 'brought to you by DraftKings,' along with graphics coming into and out of televised shows and segments." Those positions were "exclusive to DraftKings" as part of an advertising arrangement with ESPN announced earlier this year (USATODAY.com, 10/6). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Joe Flint reports despite pulling advertising from ESPN, DraftKings "kept ads in place on other networks including Fox Sports, which has a stake in the fantasy sports company" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/7). FanDuel said that it "isn't pulling any advertising" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/7). In N.Y., Drape & Williams note some of the industry’s primary sponsors have "raised questions or distanced themselves from lucrative advertising and sponsorship deals" with DraftKings and FanDuel (N.Y. TIMES, 10/7).
WAITING FOR TRANSPARENCY? ESPN's "OTL" yesterday examined the DFS controversy, with Bob Ley noting ESPN has a $500M "exclusive advertising deal" with DraftKings. Ley noted that deal begins with the new year and as of yesterday, ESPN "continued running commercials for the two main daily sports fantasy companies but has removed sponsored elements from within shows." ESPN's Darren Rovell said the company is "waiting for a little bit more transparency" from DraftKings and FanDuel on if any more employees have won money on the sites. Attorney Daniel Wallach said, "It's a clear watershed moment. ... This has been a movement towards regulation and this is the moment of certainty, and with yesterday's revelation, can we trust this industry to self-govern and self-regulate? We are undoubtedly headed towards government regulation and it is needed as in all forms of gambling." DFSReport.com co-Founder & Chief Editor Ben Brown said, "There is no transparency in place. ... We've known about this issue for over a week now. We haven't received hardly any information (from either site)" ("OTL," ESPN, 10/6).
