“Alexa, what’s DraftKings?”
The daily fantasy sports operator announced on Thursday that it was rolling out a free integration for Amazon’s Alexa called “Ask DraftKings.”
The product, available in the Alexa Skills store, allows players to access fantasy stats via the internet-connected voice service.
“We want to provide DraftKings customers another way to get real-time updates on their DFS players,“ said Jeremy Elbaum, vice president of strategic partnerships. “Alexa has become an indispensable part of daily life for many consumers which makes it a clear choice for DraftKings as we expand into new platforms.”
More on DraftKings and Alexa
The rollout for DraftKings comes as it continues to explains its DFS product and create more content for fantasy players.
So how does Ask DraftKings work? Here’s a description from the company:
Through this integration, customers in the US and UK can ask DraftKings Skill for Alexa questions about specific players, including DraftKings fantasy points earned, touchdowns scored, net yards and overall stats both in real time and historically.
To receive information on an athlete, customers can enable the DraftKings Skill for Alexa and follow it with a player’s name by saying, “Alexa, Launch DraftKings. Tom Brady.”
Alternatively, customers can simply ask, “Alexa, how many points does Tom Brady have?” If interested to hear an athlete’s DraftKings’ fantasy score from a specific week, customers must say “Ask DraftKings” followed by the player’s name and the given week, such as, “Alexa, how many points did Tom Brady earn in week 7 of the 2016 – 2017 season?”
Here’s a demo:
More coming for ‘Ask DraftKings’
DraftKings relayed that the Alexa offering would eventually expand to more international markets. (Currently, DraftKings offers its paid-entry contests also in Germany and Malta.)
The product will also eventually include functionality for all ten sports that DraftKings offers in its DFS contests.
DraftKings doing more than just DFS contests
A major focus of DraftKings recently has been on providing content and things outside of contests.
- It’s continued to expand and improve its DK Live sports app. (FanDuel rolled out its own standalone app as well.)
- The site launched its DK Shop e-commerce store at the start of the NFL season.
- It’s increased the resources to the content side of things at DK Playbook.
The bread and butter for DraftKings will always be revenue from its contests. But it’s continuing to look for new ways to create engagement for fans. And it wants to integrate the company into fans’ sports-watching experience anyway it can.
