“This Week In Daily” is LegalSportsReport’s weekly wrap of key facts, happenings and miscellany from the daily fantasy sports industry.
Stories of note
Things escalate quickly in Michigan
Last week seemed like there were positive developments for the daily fantasy sports industry in Michigan, as a state senator introduced a bill that would classify DFS as a skill game.
This week? Not so good. The Michigan Gaming Control Board said that playing fantasy sports for real money in the state runs afoul of state law. And the newly launched StarsDraft (formerly Victiv) announced it would be staying out of the Michigan market.
Clearly, a fight over the future of DFS is coming in the state, and it could set the stage for similar battles in other states.
StarsDraft is here
Less than a month after Amaya bought the DFS site Victiv as its platform, it formally relaunched as StarsDraft.
For now, this is just the first stage of what is likely larger plans for PokerStars’ ambitions in DFS, as it seems unlikely that it will only operate in the U.S. long-term; currently, no one outside of America can play at StarsDraft.
PokerStars also showed how little it plans to spend this football season, with some pretty conservative contests for Week 1.
Of the week
Read of the week
“O.C. company in growing fight for its share of the daily fantasy sports market”
This is a great read on Fantasy Aces, and the fight for carving out market share in the DFS market, if your company isn’t named FanDuel or DraftKings. Sites like Fantasy Aces and Fantasy Feud will be duking it out for No. 3 status this fall during NFL season.
Tweets of the week
If you sell media and couldn’t close a deal with DraftKings this fall, you should change jobs. https://t.co/jXL9kxigRi
— Brian Balsbaugh (@Balsbaugh) September 3, 2015
.@DraftKings in Times Square… Incredible pic.twitter.com/tzhqiqg3PZ
— Ethan Shibutani (@EShibutani) September 1, 2015
Number of the week
$82 million
The estimated amount that DraftKings has spent on television commercials over the first eight months of the year. Over the past week, its TV spend has eclipsed $18 million.
In case you missed it
- DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said his company is bigger than FanDuel.
- FanDuel’s new office in New York will be four times bigger than its current office.
- The market for DFS tools continues to expand.
