As the advertising starts to ramp up ahead of the NFL, Daily Fantasy Sports operators FanDuel and DraftKIngs have upped the ante. Both sites will be giving away millions of dollars in their week 1 contests—and spending million in promoting these contests to the public.
In fact, DraftKings is estimated to have spent more than $16 million on television ads in the last seven days alone, according to TV ad metrics provider iSpot.TV who tracked 6,667 DraftKing ads over that period, the most of any other advertiser in the top 10. Overall DraftKings ranked only behind Warner Brothers and AT&T for the most spent on TV ads in the past week.
DraftKings has announced that it will guarantee more than $1 billion in prizes for the 2015 NFL season. It is also offering the largest guaranteed prize pool in DFS history with its $10 million week 1 contest.
In addition, it is also giving away $1 million in a week 1 contest which is free for new players making their first deposit, and $100,000 free for all players with no deposit required.
FanDuel, who has been running its fair share of TV ads as well, is hosting a week 1 contest that will award $5 million in cash, including $1 million to the first place finisher, and a slightly smaller $1 million prize pool contest that you can enter for only $5.
Challenging for DFS Market Share
However, these DFS giants will have to fight off competition from other smaller sites and newcomers to the daily fantasy space that are looking to capture a piece of the market.
Victiv, soon to be rebranded StarsDraft, was acquired by Amaya earlier this year, and is planning to relaunch under its new name prior to the start of the NFL season. Although it has been reported that they are not investing in a big marketing push for the NFL season, the integration into the poker client and association with the PokerStars brand will certainly garner attention.
Fantasy sports giant Yahoo, who entered the DFS market in July, are putting marketing dollars behind their DFS operation, offering a 200% deposit bonus up to $2,000.
CBS SportsLine launched a daily fantasy product this year as well. Although it is a small contender in the market in terms of volume, its well established season-long fantasy sports products are sure to be a valuable marketing tool and has the potential to increase the overall daily fantasy sports market.
