DraftKings has signed on as the National Football League’s official fantasy sports partner, penning a multi-year deal that gives the company exclusive access to branded content, NextGen Stats and other NFL data.
Daily fantasy sports enjoyed a popularity boom five years ago where MLB, NBA, and NHL each partnering up with DraftKings to be their official fantasy sports operator. Individual franchises in the NFL also partnered up with DraftKings and a couple of the major investors in the company are Jerry Jones, who owns the Dallas Cowboys, and Robert Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots.
Until the recent deal was announced it was reported by ESPN that the NFL wanted to keep their distance from DraftKings. Ezra Kucharz, the chief business officer at DraftKings, said about the deal: “This is a defining moment in the daily fantasy sports industry.”
Nearly 19% of Americans are seen to take part in fantasy sports in 2019 according to the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association. The most popular league in terms of fantasy sports is the NFL and DraftKings claims almost 90% of their players have taken part in an NFL daily fantasy contest.
Renie Anderson, the chief revenue officer and executive vice president of NFL partnerships, recently stated that daily fantasy football increases engagement with NFL fans.
DraftKings also recently partnered with Pepsi in order to create a game that has free NFL predictions. In the game, played on the DraftKings mobile app, players can choose three outcomes for NFL games weekly and compete for a top prize per week of $5,000. The contest lasts the entire NFL season and the player that makes the most correct predictions will win a trip to the Super Bowl in Miami.
“The Pepsi brand and its longstanding synergy with pro football hardly needs an introduction, making this partnership such a special opportunity for DraftKings to team up with an organization that genuinely shares our passion for the game,” Kuzarch said in an interview.
“Our player community cannot get enough football and collaborating to launch the Pepsi Live Prediction Challenge on DraftKings helps to both satiate this ever-growing demand and further stoke fans’ competitive flames through new innovation.”