“This Week In Daily” is LegalSportsReport’s weekly wrap of key facts, happenings and miscellany from the daily fantasy sports industry.
Stories of note
Johnny Football knows fantasy?
We generally don’t track every individual athlete that signs some sort of a deal with a daily fantasy site. But this one caught our attention. Cleveland quarterback Johnny Manziel has a relationship with DailyMVP, a site that does not offer traditional salary-cap contests.
Johnny Manziel has assembled his fantasy squad. Can you build a better one? Throwdown now at http://t.co/qGozF1OoWd pic.twitter.com/fQkZgdt68I
— DailyMVP (@DailyMVP) July 3, 2015
You can play against the controversial quarterback in MLB challenges all this month. Some of the proceeds go to charity.
FanDuel and all those hires
With announced plans for a new office in Scotland filled with 200 software developers, FanDuel obviously has some big plans for the future. What exactly those plans are will likely remain under wraps, for awhile, but changes for FanDuel’s platform are likely coming down the pike, along with some serious innovation in the DFS space, we’re guessing.
NHL team deals are worth…
Interesting story from The Sports Network in Canada, looking at Canadian NHL teams that are eyeing deals with DFS sites. As more and more teams across all sports are doing deals with sites like FanDuel and DraftKings, the asking price appears to be going up. From the story: “Deals signed by NHL teams in the U.S. with fantasy sports companies are worth more than $1 million, an NHL source said.”
The story also goes into possible issues with the legality of fantasy sports, as the Canadian Gaming Association, a lobbying group, pushes for regulation.
Of the week
Reads of the week
“How to Become a Millionaire Playing Fantasy Sports”
Daily fantasy sports reaches the pages of Maxim, as some DFS pros are featured in a long-form article. It’s another sign of increased mainstream exposure and acceptance for the industry. It’s also an interesting look at some DFS pros. For example, pro Peter Jennings, per the story:
“During the fall, I’ll have six figures down [in one day]. Five figures during the summer. Definitely there’s a lot of volume out there. From November to December, I’m on my computer for like 12 hours a day. I try to get up and move around, but I’m basically constantly working. … I basically eat, sleep and play fantasy.”
“What’s In a Name? Why ‘Fantasy Sports Books’ Could Prove Troublesome For The DFS Industry”
It’s hard for a week to go by without a reference to DFS being linked to forms of gambling. We talked to a couple of lawyers in the DFS space who weighed in on the subject of companies calling the rising trend of physical DFS establishments “fantasy sports books.” Sports betting is not legal, currently, in most of the United States. Fantasy sports are. Linking the two could become an increasing problem for the industry if legislators or regulators start taking a closer look at daily fantasy sports.
Watch of the week
CNBC tackled the pending New Jersey sports betting case, which included this reference to DFS: “Don’t we already have a lot of sports betting masquerading in the name of these daily fantasy sports leagues like DraftKings?”
Tweets of the week
50 Daily Fantasy Players from @DraftKings are locked and loaded for the main event. +$500k to the prize pool this year #Synergy
— Jonathan Aguiar (@JonAguiar) July 3, 2015
Professional sports bettor Brandon Wittmeyer takes down @DraftKings 50/50. http://t.co/oeZx8tnepL #WSOP pic.twitter.com/kWhxY9SgcW
— PokerNews (@PokerNews) July 1, 2015
Number of the week
$257
The annual spend of an average daily fantasy sports player, according to research from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. Just a few years ago, that figure was $15.
