Perhaps at this point any attention for daily fantasy golf should not be a surprise, especially considering professional golf’s fourth and final major championship of the year, the PGA Championship, is upon us. Still, some of the heavyweights in golf media are serving up an added dose this week to DFS’s golf vertical.
Most notably that attention this week came in the form of Golf Digest, a sort of bible for golf enthusiasts. Stephen Hennessey, an associate editor for Golf Digest, posted a lengthy Q&A with DraftKings’ co-founder Matt Kalish, on Monday.
What we learned heading into the PGA
Kalish has spoken plenty with Legal Sports Report during the past several months, but he did offer some interesting tidbits in the Golf Digest article.
Most notably, Kalish expounded on the explosive growth of DFS for golf at Golf Digest:
“Of all the things, golf has definitely been the strongest. It’s phenomenal how much golf has grown over the summer. Nothing’s growing faster than golf. We’re double where we were before the Masters. So it’s a rapid growth and has definitely paid off, especially in terms of adding to the summer experience.”
More than that, Kalish reiterated that DraftKings and other sites might have only scratched the surface for PGA Tour games. In fact, he says that the golf offerings at DraftKings will only become more creative. More from Kalish from the Q&A:
“I think over time, with the growth of users we’ve seen, the amounts of things we can do in tournaments and different experiences, such as live events for golf, we’re sending people to the pro-am in Lake Tahoe to play with the celebrities. All these different things that we’re able to layer into the experience comes with overall growth. I think you’ll see two- to three-times growth in the amount of experiences we can offer in golf. Prize pools will grow a ton, too.”
Millionaire Maker goes big again
Still, DraftKings’ Millionaire Maker remains the bread-and-butter offering in DFS golf.
The $3.3 million contest for the PGA Championship, which begins Thursday at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, did not quite hit its limit of 189,900 entries, closing with 187,310.
It took a little longer for this contest to attract entries than previous Millionaire Makers for golf, but there are reasons why the contest would push the deadline.
For the first time, DraftKings limited the number of entries a single user could purchase to 100 for the PGA Championship, down from 500. Its 189,900 limit is up from 171,000 for the British Open, with $300,000 more guaranteed. And the PGA Championship is considered by many to be the least prestigious of golf’s four major championships.
Reaching the mainstream golf fans
The Golf Digest interview is a clear sign that DraftKings continues to make a push to attract mainstream golf fans.
But that is not all.
On the eve of the first round of the PGA Championship, The Golf Channel pushed an email out to its subscribers with a DraftKings advertisement touting the Millionaire Maker.
Attracting more traditional golf fans appears to be a crucial aspect to the growth of DFS golf, and it looks like DraftKings wanted more of them to fill up its final golf Millionaire Maker contest of the year.
