Sam Darnold of the New York Jets runs the ball during the game against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on Dec. 30, 2018. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Verizon and the NFL have expanded their streaming rights agreement to allow fans to watch live NFL games within the Yahoo Fantasy Football mobile app for the first time during the upcoming NFL season. Verizon Media made the announcement at the company’s NewFront event in New York City on Tuesday. New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold joined Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football expert Liz Loza onstage at the event.
“My friends and I spend all our time on our phones, so this is an awesome way to watch the NFL,” Darnold said.
Yahoo fantasy football users will be able to watch all local and primetime games for free, and unauthenticated, within the Yahoo Fantasy Football app on smartphones and tablets. Games will continue to also stream on the Yahoo Sports mobile app as part of the five-year, $2 billion deal Verizon and the NFL agreed to in December 2017.
“One of the interesting things we saw in year one [of Yahoo’s partnership with the NFL] is a concentration of younger fans watching the NFL on Yahoo Sports,” said Geoff Reiss, GM of Yahoo Sports. “Half of our fans were under the age of 40. I think one of the reasons the league was interested in working with us is we would be a means for them to reach younger audiences that are either cord-cutters or cord-nevers.”
The expanded partnership includes Thursday Night Football games, early and late primetime games on Sunday, and Monday Night Football games. Games that happen on Saturday later in the season will also be streamed within Yahoo’s fantasy app, as well as playoff games and the Super Bowl.
“The NFL understands the best way to reach certain fans is through the device that demographic cannot put down,” Reiss said. “The folks we’re looking at are holding their phones six hours a day. “We already feel like we have the best fantasy experience of anybody in the market. This is just another brick in that wall.”
