Daily fantasy sports operators DraftKings and FanDuel "experienced their biggest Sunday of the NFL season," despite the negative publicity around last week's insider trading scandal "did not take a toll" on the popularity of the DFS games, according to numbers cited by Purdum & Rovell of ESPN.com. Data released yesterday by industry analytics provider SuperLobby.com shows that entries into DraftKings' and FanDuel's guaranteed prize pool NFL tournaments "hit season highs at both sites." DraftKings "received 4.14 million entries, up from 3.75 million last week, while FanDuel received 3.38 million entries, up from 3.18 million last week." DraftKings took in $25M in "entry fees into the guaranteed prize pool tournaments and paid out" $22.4M. The $2.6M in profit "was up" from $1.9M last week. FanDuel "saw a similar increase in revenue Sunday," taking in $20.6M and paying out $17.1M (ESPN.com, 10/12). ADWEEK's Michael McCarthy noted FanDuel in the last year has signed with 16 NFL teams while DraftKings "partnered with a dozen." NFL teams contacted said that they "have no plans to remove fantasy stadium lounges, signage or streams of sponsored stats and scores but will keep an eye on the unfolding scandal" (ADWEEK.com, 10/11).
THAT WAS FAST: FORTUNE.com's Daniel Roberts noted an ESPN spokesperson yesterday confirmed that DraftKings-sponsored segments on the net "returned on Friday" after being temporarily pulled last week. The spokesperson "had no further comment." Roberts noted ESPN "did not at any time pull the (many) ad spots that were running for DraftKings -- rather, what it pulled were sponsored in-show segments, signified by billboards in the background of an ESPN program, and by hosts giving introductions like, 'You’re watching NFL Insiders, presented by DraftKings'" (FORTUNE.com, 10/12). ADWEEK's Brian Flood noted the sponsorships "resumed Friday with a full complement by Sunday." ESPN’s "NFL Countdown" featured the “FanDuel Inactives” and "Draft Kings’ The Perfect Lineup,” which "literally shows ESPN analysts Adam Schefter and Matthew Berry building teams on the DraftKings app" (ADWEEK.com, 10/12).
ISSUES AT PLAY: In Boston, Kevin Cullen writes there are "several issues at play here, and most of them revolve around the utter hypocrisy of government labeling one form of gambling legal and another illegal and the utter joke of the fantasy sports industry insisting it doesn’t need regulation." The "hypocrisy of the professional sports leagues is breathtaking." Massachusetts "should regulate the sports betting industry now calling itself sports fantasy" and also should "tax the bejeebers out of them" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/13).
CRISIS MANAGEMENT: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Ben DiPietro listed the DFS scandal as his "crisis of the week" and asks PR consultants about the reactiosn of DraftKings and FanDuel to the controversy. Bernstein Crisis Management President Jonathan Bernstein said, "DraftKings started off responding rather defensively but quickly realized it had better jump on the bandwagon by agreeing to some future regulation." Crisis management firm Agnes + Day President & co-Founder Melissa Agnes noted FanDuel followed up their statement on the scandal with a "well-crafted official response the following day." Their second statement had "all the essential elements of a great crisis response and is an example that other organizations should take note of." Agnes: "For starters -- and in comparison with DraftKings’s statement -- FanDuel’s statement was written in a conversational tone which made it come across as sincere and authentic." She added, "While DraftKing’s written statement wasn’t as proactive as FanDuel’s, the verbal statements DraftKings’ [co-Founder & CEO] Jason Robins made during his ESPN interview displayed the organization’s willingness to comply and work with third parties to ensure proper regulations for the industry. His verbal statements were strong and addressed the right issues" (WSJ.com, 10/12).
