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DraftKings Partners With 27 MLB Teams, Furthering Relationship With League

DraftKings on Friday announced exclusive partnerships with 27 MLB clubs. Expanding its existing multiyear relationship with MLB that positions the Boston-based company as the league’s official daily fantasy game, the new deals cover the entire league with the exception of the D-backs, Mariners and Blue Jays. Arizona and Washington are two of the five U.S. states that currently do not allow daily fantasy games to be played for money. Numerous MLB teams have already held individual club deals and featured DraftKings signage with their ballparks, and the latest moves expand that portfolio with additional teams and activations, such as prizing of exclusive team-based experiences. DraftKings will also be more deeply integrated into the MLB.com At Bat mobile application, including alerts that direct users to see their selected players' at-bats via live look-ins. The company also announced plans to hold a Fantasy Baseball World Championships with $4M in total prizes and a finale event scheduled for Aug. 15 in Las Vegas (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer).

POPULARITY OF THE CONTEST: In Boston, Bob Hohler in a front-page piece reports as online daily fantasy sports games "explode in popularity," the industry "finds itself at the vanguard of a movement to break the nation’s broad and longstanding prohibition against sports gambling." Daily fantasy games "do not meet the federal legal definition of gambling." But some gambling specialists "consider daily fantasy contests a form of gambling." The Kraft Group, which owns the Patriots, "considers the business model so promising that it has invested four times" in DraftKings since '13. DraftKings "takes about 10 percent of all contest pots, which this year are projected to total" nearly $1.35B. MLB this year bought an equity stake in DraftKings, though Commissioner Rob Manfred "has indicated the line between daily fantasy sports and gambling is so fine that he has banned baseball players from getting involved in fantasy gaming." The Boston-based DraftKings spent about $60M last year "on marketing, most of it aimed at males 21 to 35 and much of it targeting Boston sports fans." Patriots QB Tom Brady and TE Rob Gronkowski "have signed sponsorship contracts with fantasy operators: Brady with DailyMVP, Gronkowski with DraftKings." DraftKings co-Founder & CEO Jason Robins said that his company "is not in the gambling business." Robins "cited the federal exemption as well as internal company data that suggest succeeding at daily fantasy sports requires knowledge and skill, despite elements of chance such as weather and injuries" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/3).

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