DraftKings and FanDuel both continue to pull in more than $2 million of revenue a week for daily fantasy football based on their Sunday NFL contests.
The figures show that it’s business as usual in the wake of a planned merger announced by the two daily fantasy sports companies, at least for now.
The top line look at DraftKings and FanDuel for NFL Week 11
A sampling of the publicly viewable NFL Sunday Week 11 contests — including both guaranteed prize pools (GPP) and non-guaranteed contests — at DraftKings and FanDuel observed by Legal Sports Report show the sites both generated more than $2 million:
- FanDuel: $14.2 million in entry fees; $11.8 million in prizes awarded; $2.4 million revenue.
- DraftKings: $18.7 million in entry fees; $16.5 million in prizes; $2.1 million revenue.
The figures represent a large sampling of contests from Sunday, but do not include all NFL contests or contests from other sports (i.e. NBA, NHL). They merely point to an example of how much money is flowing through the DFS operators at a snapshot in time.
They also do not represent any figures being generated by private contests, into which LSR has no insight. Both sites have invested resources into these contests via new offerings before NFL season. DraftKings has previously told LSR that participation in private contests is up significantly year over year.
Yahoo, the No. 3 DFS operator, continues to bring in a fraction of the revenue of its larger competitors.
Also of note: FanDuel continues not to serve one state — Texas — that DraftKings does because of legal concerns.
The NFL season to date
Here is a look at the metrics at DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo since Week 6 of the NFL season for similar samples.
Revenue continues to hover around $2 million a week, with some fluctuations from week to week.
| Site | Week | Entry Fees | Prizes | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FanDuel | Week 14 (12/11) | $12,588,207.00 | $10,736,846.80 | $1,851,360.20 |
| DraftKings | Week 14 (12/11) | $16,012,847.45 | $14,142,350.60 | $1,870,496.85 |
| Yahoo | Week 14 (12/11) | $331,664.00 | $302,584.13 | $29,079.87 |
| FanDuel | Week 13 (12/4) | NA | NA | NA |
| DraftKings | Week 13 (12/4) | $18,246,941.25 | $15,963,378.60 | $2,283,562.65 |
| Yahoo | Week 13 (12/4) | $492,316.20 | $446,191.33 | $46,124.87 |
| FanDuel | Week 12 (11/27) | $13,115,094.00 | $11,113,444.10 | $2,001,649.90 |
| DraftKings | Week 12 (11/27) | $17,209,868.50 | $15,487,467.70 | $1,722,400.80 |
| Yahoo | Week 12 (11/27) | $559,247.00 | $522,054.90 | $37,192.10 |
| FanDuel | Week 11 (11/20) | $14,168,626.00 | $11,783,829.00 | $2,384,797.00 |
| DraftKings | Week 11 (11/20) | $18,728,398.25 | $16,508,463.20 | $2,219,935.05 |
| Yahoo | Week 11 (11/20) | $455,461.00 | $422,795.00 | $32,666.00 |
| FanDuel | Week 10 (11/13) | $12,486,847.00 | $10,418,693.60 | $2,068,153.40 |
| DraftKings | Week 10 (11/13) | $15,004,462.65 | $13,118,480.70 | $1,885,981.95 |
| Yahoo | Week 10 (11/13) | $394,827.00 | $364,330.00 | $30,497.00 |
| FanDuel | Week 9 (11/6) | $14,734,450.00 | $12,328,371.80 | $2,406,078.20 |
| DraftKings | Week 9 (11/6) | $19,536,503.95 | $17,112,120.20 | $2,424,383.75 |
| Yahoo | Week 9 (11/6) | $352,777.50 | $324,174.30 | $28,603.20 |
| FanDuel | Week 8 (10/30) | $15,042,309.00 | $12,805,637.60 | $2,236,671.40 |
| DraftKings | Week 8 (10/30) | $20,709,367.00 | $18,911,203.00 | $1,798,164.00 |
| Yahoo | Week 8 (10/30) | $452,425.00 | $421,844.50 | $30,580.50 |
| FanDuel | Week 7 (10/23) | $17,167,606.00 | $14,413,725.70 | $2,753,880.30 |
| DraftKings | Week 7 (10/23) | $23,661,272.80 | $21,959,359.60 | $1,701,913.20 |
| Yahoo | Week 7 (10/23) | $678,420.00 | $671,729.50 | $6,690.00 |
| FanDuel | Week 6 (10/16) | $16,742,975.00 | $14,188,814.00 | $2,554,160.80 |
| DraftKings | Week 6 (10/16) | $25,466,355.00 | $23,444,927.00 | $2,021,428.00 |
| Yahoo | Week 6 (10/16) | $565,075.00 | $565,075.00 | 37,063.10 |
Both sites ticked upward after a slight down week in revenue for a similar sampling of contests from NFL Week 10.
Year over year at DraftKings and FanDuel
The trend, at least for GPPs, is down year over year at both sites.
Here is similar but not identical data collected for NFL Week 11 in 2015 just for GPPs:
DraftKings managed to attract about $20.4 million in entry fees for its GPPs, about even with NFL Week 10. The tally represents a less than 0.25 percent drop from Week 10. But its net revenue went up because it limited its payouts to $17.99 million, posting a season-best margin of 11.6 percent and generating net revenue of about $2.4 million.
In the first full week since FanDuel stopped taking deposits from New York and stopped taking entry fees as well, the site attracted $15.9 million in fees for its GPP contests, according to FanDuel’s own preliminary numbers sent to Legal Sports Report. That is down from the more than $17 million it took in for NFL Week 10. FanDuel did keep its payouts in line, with an effective margin that held at 10.9 percent.
The sampling above for NFL Week 11 2016 includes a large number of non-guaranteed contests, meaning numbers are down, at least for publicly observable contests. (It’s also not a complete apples-to-apples comparison, as the 2016 sample only captured data for contests starting on Sunday.)
Of course, those numbers can’t be looked at in a vacuum, as the legal landscape for DFS changed dramatically in the past year. Last year for NFL Week 11, FanDuel was not serving New York, but it was still in a variety of other states (Texas included) that it no longer serves. (DraftKings was still serving New York at the time. Both sites serve NY users again.)
The trend can also be seen in the sites’ headline contests. DraftKings’ headliner Millionaire Maker guaranteed $5 million in Week 11 of 2015, and $4 million this year. FanDuel’s top contest was half as big, down to $1.25 million from $2.5 million a year ago.
