Author Archives: Joe Favorito

FanDuel and 15 NFL Teams in Multi-year Sponsorship Deal

By @TheDailyPayoff

The battle between the two elite companies in the daily pay fantasy space escalated Wednesday.
Terry Lefton of the Sports Business Journal broke the story https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2015/04/22/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/FanDuel.aspx that FanDuel, just weeks after rival Draft Kings announced an exclusive deal with MLB, had signed one-year exclusive deals with 15 FL teams.
The new deal gives the biggest player in terms of participants in the growing pay fantasy space at least a marketing edge in the largest pay fantasy sport – The NFL. The 15 NFL teams joining Fan Duel were the Bengals, Colts, Packers, Bills, Eagles, Rams, Browns, Jaguars, Ravens, Buccaneers Jets, Redskins, Chargers, Lions and Texans.

Since Yahoo has an exclusive deal with the 49ers and three NFL teams are in states where paid fantasy games are illegal (Arizona, Louisiana, and Washington), it gives the New York-based company a leg up as the NFL Draft comes into focus (New England and Denver have already signed Draft Kings deals, and Kraft Sports, like ESPN and MLB, have taken equity positions with Boston-based Draft Kings).

According to Lefton’s report, last Friday, the NFL released to its teams new marketing regulations governing their deals with paid fantasy sites. The new rules essentially make daily paid fantasy sites equivalent to gambling casinos in ways clubs could market with them.

Triple Crown Video promotion Enters Third Leg

By @TheDailyPayoff

With less than two weeks before the first leg of the Triple Crown racing series kicks off, America’s Best Racing released its third in a series of four video ads promoting horse racing’s Super Bowl.

This time, the series blends two parts philosophy and one part heartstrings in the form of Secretariat, one of the greatest thoroughbreds to race and was the first Triple Crown winner in 1973 in 25 years.

The Kentucky Derby, the series’ first race, goes off Saturday, May 2 and the digital video ads by America’s Best Racing, “The Road Less Traveled: The Road to the Triple Crown,” is trying to build audience expectation.

The video series highlights the hopes and aspirations indelibly tied to the pursuit of this most difficult athletic challenge, and features the beautiful cinematography of Bluegrass country, said Stephen Panus, vice president of ABR.

The series had been invoking mainstream sports references, a cameo by a 1958 Chevrolet Apache Truck and a quirky script are designed to expand the awareness, conversation and national viewing audience of the 2015 Road to the Triple Crown, he said. But this installment conjured up images of greatness from yesteryear.

The lastest installment can be view here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns_esR_RXZQ

The Triple Crown is among the most difficult trophies to capture in all of sports. It has only happened on 11 occasions, with the last time occurring in 1978 when Affirmed took all three races.

A 3-year-old Thoroughbred must win three races – Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes, each at a different distance – over the span of five weeks.

NBC Sports will provide live coverage of all three races: Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 2; Preakness on Saturday, May 16; and Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 6.

Episode 1 can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAxtFGM05bw

Episode 2 can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TfYQYTocAo

NFL and Sportradar Unite on Exclusive Stats Deal

By Frank Scandale @Fscandale @TheDailyPayoff

The National Football League and Sportradar US, a major statistics data supplier, announced today a multi-year agreement to make the global company the league’s exclusive distributor of statistics to digital outlets beginning with the 2015 NFL Season.

Sportradar US will become the NFL’s exclusive distributor for official real-time scores, player statistics and play-by-play data (Game Statistics and Information System/ “GSIS”) as well as the NFL’s proprietary Next Gen Stats.

Ulrich Harmuth, President of Sportradar US said the deal underscores the company’s commitment to securing its spot as the top outfit in the U.S. sports data market.

“We are thrilled to partner with the NFL in developing a completely new data category that will boost the fan experience as well as improve how the NFL and its partners interact with their fans,” he said.

He explained that since entering the US market about 18 months ago when it took over SportsData LLC in Minneapolis, MN, the company has been convinced about the sports data market being a great opportunity to do “all kinds of sports data” in the future. “We believe the US sports market is the largest in the world.”
He said the company upgraded the Minneapolis headquarters and the infrastructure there as an indication of its long term commitment to its venture in the US.

He said the NHL, for example, would be one of “six or seven interesting leagues” in the US that Sportradar would be interested in pursuing down the road.

“We managed to grow quickly in the past and there will be a need to continue to grow,” Harmuth said. “The NFL is a major step for us. We are also the official statistics provider for NASCAR, so if there is an opportunity to go for further licensing deals, we know we have a compelling product…and are completely willing to invest further resources.”

Vishal Shah, VP of Media Strategy and Business Development at the NFL , explained the reason for the deal.

“Statistics are core to the fan experience, and being able to broadly deliver new, differentiated viewpoints is compelling. Next gen stats is an exciting initiative that adds tremendous breadth and depth to our sport,” he said. “The ability to partner with Sportradar US, with its focus on technology and high quality data distribution, enables the NFL bring these great experiences to the rapidly growing sports data market and our fans.”

This partnership will allow the NFL to distribute statistical data in new and innovative ways, across apps, social media platforms, and connected devices.

Next Gen Stats, the initiative first introduced in the 2014 NFL season, consists of real-time, location-based data such as speed, acceleration and distance traveled, for all players, in all games.

This unique information, alongside GSIS, will be distributed by Sportradar US to give fans a closer look into the game, and allow them to experience it in ways never seen before. Insights from Next Gen Stats also will be available for fans in-stadium, at home, and everywhere else that NFL content is consumed.

While the company said the deal will not impact the US gambling market, it will further the development of Fantasy Football.

“Fantasy Football players are constantly looking for that extra bit of insight or information that will give them the edge against their competition,” Harmuth stated. “The NFL’s Next Gen Stats will provide a whole new level of insight into player performance, strengths and tendencies. For example, data about a player’s formation location, routes and speed over time as well as his performance or record against specific players or teams, will provide fantasy sports players with unique information as they consider future player performance and their selections.”

Both the NFL and Sportsradar have said that statistics will not be shared with gambling houses in the US. Harmuth explained the company has two verticals of business – one is for media and business, the other is to serve gambling customers. In Europe, they are completely separated, he said. “In the US we only offer one vertical – the media – and no data to gambling customers.”
Asked how this might change if the regulations were loosened on sports betting in the US, Harmuth replied: “We know what we have today, so we are fully focused on media sales, and not worrying about what might happen three to five years away.”

Harmuth said his company and the NFL agreed to not disclose financial details of the deal. However, Sports Business Daily reported via industry sources that the Sportradar would pay the NFL $5 million per year in exchange for an equity stake in the company. https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/04/20/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/NFL-sportradar.aspx

Sportradar US is the U.S. subsidiary of Sportradar AG, which supplies more than 800 businesses in over 80 countries with data. Headquartered in Switzerland, Sportradar has offices in more than 30 locations around the world.

Sportradar US, which until recently operated as SportsData LLC and was acquired by Sportradar AG in 2013, has been said to be the fastest-growing sports data provider in the U.S. In addition to providing official league feeds from the NFL and NASCAR, the company said it now covers more than 20,000 live events across professional football, baseball, basketball, hockey and golf events, plus collegiate football and basketball. The company provides data solutions for leading global companies such as Google, Turner Sports, IBM, Facebook and Twitter. Sportradar US is headquartered in Minneapolis and recently opened a new 20,000 square foot state-of-the-art office dedicated to collecting, processing and monitoring data as well as client support, IT and development teams.

ARod’s Accomplishments May Not Get the Team Love

By Joe Favorito @JoeFav @TheDailyPayoff

On April 28 the New York Yankees will have a Bobblehead night for one of their stars. He crosses cultural demos and brings people out to the ballpark in The Bronx who may not come out otherwise.

Later this summer they will honor one of their legendary players from the recent past, one who admitted using PED’s but then came back to resume his career without incident.

Neither is Alex Rodriguez. They are Masahiro Tanaka and Andy Pettite.

What about Rodriquez, who is about to pass Willie Mays on the all-time home run list and will pass a host of milestones as he returned from his year-long suspension and very public dispute with his team and Major League Baseball? Nothing yet.

Other teams like the Milwaukee Brewers have found ways to heal and then promote fallen stars like Ryan Braun, but the Yankees and ARod, arguably their best player this early on in the MLB season…nothing. Stone silence. The team’s social media push throughout the spring hardly mentioned anything Rodriguez did on or off the field, his bio is smaller than what one would expect and there are few if any public celebrations during games of Rodriguez. He is there in body, but not promotion as he plays through his contract and goes about his job for The Bronx Bombers.

What should and could be a marketing bonanza for the team and its partners is non existent. The millions made on the backs of Derek Jeter’s farewell season are a memory. The events created are in the past. For ARod, the accomplishments are speaking for themselves with few to amplify the message.

This is not all cut and dried or very simple. Jeter was the model athlete for a generation and there is no comparison in terms of public image between the two superstars. Then there are millions of dollars in incentives the Yankees will have to pay Rodriguez as he reaches his milestones, and reports have said the club will fight those payments because of ARod’s suspension and all the issues publicly and privately that came along with it. Glorifying anything Rodriguez does publicly, some say, will hurt their chances of regaining the millions currently owed to him as incentives. This fight will go on for a long time probably, longer than the remaining part of Rodriguez’s career.

However the other side comes with MLB, which continues to acknowledge Rodriguez’s statistical marks, suspension or not. While MLB has not gone on a public crusade to glorify the coming milestone breakers, they have not walked away from noting the numbers or his daily on-field accomplishments.

Fans too seem to be warming to the returning Rodriguez, who by all media accounts has been the model teammate thus far, and has stepped very carefully around any public spats with the organization. He is playing, and playing well, and trying to keep the healing going publicly. As he plays well the public seems willing to forgive and move on. For the Yankees, long steeped in tradition and tied up in legal issues, not quite yet. Ad for brands around the team that could tie easily into a campaign for the fallen Yankees star now on the comeback, there is also lots of silence. No one seems willing to yet cross the line and risk public brand scrutiny for tying to Rodriguez; not yet anyway.

It is still early, and the Yankees, as savvy a business group as there is, are watching and weighing options every day. The legal issues make public comment on the subject probably impossible to comment on. However from a promotional standpoint, the crosstown Mets and their young stars are slowly ceding casual fans interested in a day at the ballpark away from the rebuilding Yankees this spring. Should that continue, would the Yankees and their brand partners bite the bullet and start promoting Rodriguez like they do their lesser stars? Or is the legal risk too great, with short term pain being better for the long term legal gain?

In the daily media grind, manager Joe Girardi handles each question tactfully and moves on. On the promotional side, fans can come to get their Tanaka bobbleheads later this month and will cheer for Pettite when he is honored this summer without any issue or backlash.

However for ARod, the sound of promotional silence continues. For how long is anyone’s guess at this point. We are a forgiving lot as fans for the most part, and we love a comeback. Will the Yankees find a way that makes sense, even subtly, to forgive and move on. Tough and complex call for the organization, but one worth watching as the weather, and the record book, heats up in The Bronx.

Record Slot Jackpot on the Line at Empire City

By @TheDailyPayoff

Yonkers, New York – A jackpot on the Wheel of Fortune Triple Stars slot machine at Empire City Casino has ballooned past the $1 million mark, which would make it the largest jackpot to be won at the casino, Empire reported today.

Cherie Czerniowski, who oversees slot operations at Empire City, announced, “This is not a wide area progressive as seen at most properties. This jackpot can only be hit here at Empire City.”

The jackpot has guests coming from various points to try their luck, she said, particularly with several recent record-breaking scores at the Westchester casino. Manuel Esteche of Port Chester hit ‎for $571,000 in February, breaking the previous record jackpot of $509,000 won in November by Moosue Stefern of Bergenfield, New Jersey. Ella of Brooklyn won the third largest jackpot in Empire City’s history with a $222,459 score in February.

A group of seven other six-figure jackpots for patrons of Empire Cit are also up for the taking, including the $226,213 Betty Boop’s Love Meter.

“There are plenty of jackpots to go around at Empire City, with dozens over $50,000 and hundreds over $10,000,”added Czerniowski. “But the million dollar jackpot will be a true life-changer.”

Empire City Casino, one of the largest entertainment and gaming destinations in the northeast, features 5,300 slots, electronic craps, roulette, baccarat and and year-round harness racing & International simulcasting.

Fantasy’s Draft Kings Wants to “Own” Boston

By TERRY LYONS @terrylyons
Contributing Columnist @The Daily Payoff

BOSTON – The sun would rise and the sun would set but in Boston and the entire New England region, where a record winter snowfall changed the landscape like never before, the temperature refused to rise and we thought spring would never come.

At Fenway Park, the equipment staff loaded the sponsored trucks for spring training, maneuvering around six-foot piles of snow as the grounds crew took extreme measures to melt the ice packed on the precious Fenway diamond – a new kind of frozen tundra. The T trains labored on broken-down commuter rails, the parking meters were buried deep and parking spaces were few and far between. Very gradually, the landscaped changed as the snow melted. Somehow, as the Boston Red Sox hosted the Washington Nationals for the Sox’ home opener earlier this week, the temperature climbed to 60-degrees, the grass was as green as the fairways at Augusta and New Englanders turned out to watch their Red Sox.

As fans poured out of the Kenmore Square T station on their way to Fenway Park, they were met with something new and different. Daily Fantasy Sports provider Draft Kings, as the Official Daily Fantasy Sports partner of the Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball, purchased a massive billboard campaign, taking over nearly every inch of the station, including ads placed on the subway turnstiles and high-traffic corridors. That advertising was complemented with LED signage on Fenway’s centerfield scoreboard. The campaign even extended to the trash bins throughout the Fenway area. The very trash bins that were covered with snow a month earlier were now a branding campaign for Boston-based Draft Kings to attract new players to their daily fantasy baseball games.

DraftKings has a multi-year deal in place with the Boston Red Sox for stadium and media property advertising and experiential Red Sox fan activities, such as the ability to win premium seats to games, or a chance to throw a ceremonial first pitch or take “on-field” batting practice at Fenway Park.

Draft Kings’ strategy is to “own Boston.”

And why not? The company is based in the city.

“When you look at Boston, it’s pretty clear the fans understand the teams and the sports more. Fantasy sports rank higher relative to the population in Boston than in almost any other city in the country,” said Draft Kings CEO Jason Robins in a recent interview with Boston Common Magazine.http://bit.ly/1Jb5Bs3

With the strategy clear, Draft Kings acted decisively, signing advertising, sponsorship and marketing deals, first with the NFL’s New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro (an easy one since the Kraft family had an early seed investment), then with the Boston Bruins and TD Garden, situated near downtown Boston’s North End. Soon after, Draft Kings walked the walk within the NBA’s strict team marketing rules and signed a pact with the Boston Celtics. That deal, struck last December, came only a month after the league had signed on as an equity partner with Draft Kings’ daily fantasy rival Fan Duel.

“The Boston Celtics are one of the world’s most beloved, well-known teams and Draft Kings is thrilled to be aligned with the 17-time NBA champions,” said Robins at the time while noting, “we look forward to working with our hometown NBA team to bring new programs and adding to the in-game experience for fans watching the Celtics ‘in-person’”

Draft Kings’ partnership deal with the Celtics was similar to other team deals struck this season and it included exposure on LED court side signage and the TD Garden Jumbotron, multi-platform content posts on the team website and inclusion on “Game Day” ticket offers sent via email blast to the team’s customer database. In addition, Draft Kings grabbed a couple luxury suite nights, complete with visits from Celtics legends, for prizes and hospitality plays in their hometown surroundings.

Furthering the strategy, Draft Kings struck a deal with the Tiger Woods Foundation, host of two prominent PGA Tour events, including the Quicken Loans National in the Washington DC area and the Deutsche Bank Championship, a PGA Tour playoff event held at the TPC Boston in suburban Norton, Massachusetts. At that tournament, Draft Kings will receive ad placements on the grounds of the tournament, along with the usual plugs in e-mail blasts and social media posts. Draft Kings also has plans for interactive gaming and hospitality plays at the Champions Club venue at the TPC in ‘burbs of Boston at a time when Draft Kings will focus more on the Labor Day pro football scores than those of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings.

“We are proud to be a Boston-based company, and it happens that our hometown market is one of the biggest sports towns in the country. It’s amazing to be in a position to bring once-in-a-lifetime experiences to Boston’s passionate sports fans, said Femi Wasserman, VP Communications for DraftKings.

In addition to Boston, DraftKings has exclusive partnerships nationally with the NHL, UFC and MLB and with individual teams across a spectrum of major league sports teams, including Denver Broncos (NFL), Los Angeles Clippers (NBA), Philadelphia 76ers (NBA), Pittsburgh Steelers (NFL), Golden State Warriors (NBA), the NY Rangers (NHL) and the San Diego Padres (MLB), among others.

Now solidly focused on Major League Baseball, Draft Kings struck an exclusive deal with MLB and its online cash cow MLBAM in early April, extending a previous agreement signed just two years ago. Draft Kings carved-out more space on MLB.com and the MLB Network while furthering its strategy for “experiential” aspects of fantasy gaming to attract local “team” fans to contests in an attempt to do the most difficult task the daily fantasy sports providers attempt to do, with that being the challenge to attract and maintain customers.

Fantasy Stat:

Red Sox fans are 76% more likely to play fantasy sports than the general Boston population
Source: “Which MLB Teams Over perform in Popularity,” Nate Silver, April 2014 **Scarborough 2014

Horse Racing Exec Talks Triple Crown, Gambling and Mint Juleps

By Frank Scandale @TheDailyPayoff

Stephen Panus, vice president of America’s Best Racing operation, gears up for the first leg of the Triple Crown races, arguably the most difficult achievement in sports. Clearly quite excited about the digital opportunities the sport offers today, Panus took time out recently to talk about horse racing, the advances in technology, online horse betting and the future of all of it.

Stephen Panus, ABR’s vice president

Title: Vice President, America’s Best Racing
Duties: Oversee digital, social, earned media and video production for America’s Best Racing
HomeTown: Southport, CT
Twitter: @Man_o_PR
Previous Life: Sports attorney/agent and publicist/marketer – started as a publicist working with the late Joe Goldstein and moved onto stints as an NFL player agent, marketer for 3-time Indy 500 and Dancing with the Stars champion Helio Castroneves and attorney/VP Biz Dev. for Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf
Most memorable moment in Sports: 1980 USA Olympic hockey win over USSR
Most memorable moment in Thoroughbred Racing: Attending my first Breeders’ Cup. It simply is one of the most underrated major sporting events held on American soil. A must for any true American sports fan. It truly has it all – the best horses, gambling, cocktails, fashion and fans.
Favorite all-time horse: Affirmed

TDP: Let’s get right to it. There has not been a Triple Crown winner since 1978 when Affirmed took all three legs. How do you assess this year’s crop of contenders and what are the odds of having a Triple Crown Winner?

SP: It’s a terrific and deep class of 3-year-old Thoroughbreds, topped by the dual threats trained by Bob Baffert, American Pharoah and Dortmund. In addition to those two undefeated race horses, 18 other excellent race horses including Mubtaahij, Firing Line, International Star, Carpe Diem, Materiality, Upstart, Frosted, and Far Right, among others, will comprise the likely field of 20 horses. The first Saturday in May should prove as exciting as ever with this talented class of 3-year-old Thoroughbreds vying to capture the first leg of the Triple Crown.

As far as the odds for a race horse to win the Triple Crown…well, it’s only been accomplished 11 times. It takes a special horse to win 3 races at 3 different race tracks and 3 different distances over the span of five weeks. Will it happen this year? Stay tuned to find out. And if you’re interested in gambling on whether that happens or not, you can. The Wynn sports book offers a prop bet on it and also has the Derby favorite, American Pharoah listed at 10/1 odds to win the Triple Crown.

TDP: Which of the Three legs, which do you consider the most difficult to win and why?

SP: They each are equally hard to win on their own merits. But history would likely say that the third and final leg, the Belmont Stakes, may be the most difficult for a variety of reasons. It’s the longest distance (1.5 miles) of the 3 races and has been anointed as the test of champions as the pressure mounts when a Thoroughbred comes to New York with a Triple Crown on the line. Since 1979 there have been 13 horses with a chance to win the Triple Crown heading into the Belmont Stakes and 13 horses who failed.

TDP: With the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight on the same day as the Derby, how will that affect viewership, interest and ultimately betting handles?

SP: Interest in the Kentucky Derby is always sky-high as it draws significant viewership, typically well over 15-16 million, via the live coverage provided by NBC Sports, in addition to the 165,000 people who pack Churchill Downs. Derby parties are conducted from coast-to-coast, mint juleps are consumed and an entire millinery industry provides fans of all ages with a host of selections for their outfits. And, gambling on America’s most famous horse race certainly is big part of the slice of Americana that attracts so many to the sport on the first Saturday in May. I read recently where Kevin Bradley of Bovada mentioned that with the Derby and Pacquiao-Mayweather fight both happening on May 2 it should prove to be the second biggest gambling day of the year, behind only the Super Bowl. Who knows, it could be even bigger. Last year $129.2 million was wagered on the Kentucky Derby alone. It should be an epic day of sports viewing and gambling for fans across the nation.

TDP: What are the biggest challenges facing the horse racing industry today? And what is ABR doing to aid the cause?

SP: Just like every other major professional sport, horse racing is confronted with how to market to and reach Millennials. Creating the next generation of fans for any sport or brand is pivotal toward building long-term success. That’s exactly why The Jockey Club created and launched America’s Best Racing in 2012. America’s Best Racing, a multi-media fan development and awareness-building initiative, is focused on the competition and the lifestyle of the sport. ABR continues to attract and draw in new fans to the multiple touch points – racing, gambling, pop culture, fashion , food and travel, for instance – through an integrated plan of digital, social and earned media supporting expanded, live television coverage of big race events across Fox Sports 1 and NBC Sports, a brand ambassador program with representatives located in Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Chicago, a social media influencer strategy, and key strategic partnerships with racetracks and the Breeders’ Cup.
We are attracting a more youthful audience to the sport, a demo in the 18 – 40 year-old range that connects with the aspirational elements of the sport, that has embraced the excitement and affordability of a big race day event at destination race tracks like Gulfstream Park in Florida, Keeneland and Churchill Downs in Kentucky, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course in New York, Arlington Park in Illinois, and Santa Anita Park and Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in California, among others. And no other sport produces as many adrenaline rushes as horse racing does.

TDP: With the various efforts ongoing to legalize sports betting around the nation, and the rise of Fantasy in the world, how will this help or hurt the horse racing? And what is your opinion on the efforts?

SP: Horse racing remains the only legalized method of gambling online. And the reality is that Millennials live on their phones and mobile devices. The taboo formerly associated with sports betting no longer exists in the wake of the emergence of daily fantasy sites. All of this adds up to an opportunity for horse racing. One of America’s Best Racing partner sponsors is DerbyJackpot.com, a digital and mobile platform which allows fans to place real money bets: as little as a dime at over 100 race tracks across the country. DerbyJackpot players are treated to a live video feed of each race while they chat with fellow players, all the while successfully packaging the thrills of a day at the races into an online experience to be shared among friends and a Millennial generation that has never experienced life without a computer or mobile device. Designed for the social gamers and casual players, including those who purchase lottery tickets, DerbyJackpot’s ease of online use removes several of the traditional obstacles that have precluded horse racing from attracting younger fans: intimidating and arcane racing lingo, long betting lines at race tracks, and a dearth of data and statistics compiled in complex fashion and forms. In fact, over 75 percent of their players had never bet on horse racing before playing DerbyJackpot.

ARENA FOOTBALL TEAM JOINS VEGAS BETTING HOUSE

By Joe Favorito @JoeFav @TheDailyPayoff

As a league on the comeback, Arena Football has to find ways to cut through the clutter to get some exposure away from their games and into the general conversation.

It’s most recent effort has it diving right one of the hottest topics in American sport off the field these days; legalized gambling.

While pay fantasy platforms like Fan Duel and Draft Kings have made big noise and big numbers the past few weeks with partnerships and new investors, the AFL and their expansion Las Vegas Outlaws have gone one step further.

The league and the team have taken advantage of the legal sports book in Nevada (the only state where sports betting is legal these days) to form a bold partnership with betting house William Hill USA.

The partnership includes live betting and active point spreads on all of the Outlaws homes games at The Thomas and Mack Center, making the AFL club the first, and only American sports team thus far to be able to take on and activate a betting partnership not tied to pay fantasy, or in the case of the NHL New Jersey Devils and NBA Philadelphia 76ers online poker.

While the AFL is not the NFL and the dollars both wagered and the risk involved is not that high, the partnership presents an interesting potential glimpse into the future of sport in America, something that places like the UK have accepted and profited from for years.

William Hill logos are widespread at the Outlaw games, both on uniforms and on the field, and the company has a kiosk on the concourse where customers can sign up for its mobile betting client, and place wagers from the stands. The risk for William Hill US is probably low given the volume expected on AFL games, but the upside on seeing how this new opportunity engages fans who are not used to in-game wagering is very much apparent, and could set a unique precedent for sports, at least in Nevada, going forward.

With the NHL looking hard at expansion into the state, it will be interesting to see if rules relax with regard to sports books on the four major leagues when games are played in Nevada. Previously when teams like the Los Angeles Lakers played limited regular season games in Las Vegas, the lines on those games were suspended. However with a growing appetite for legal gaming in addition to pay fantasy, the AFL test may change things, with the NHL gaining a first crack at seeing how mobile legal gambling could work.

Of course the arena, and the hometown hockey team, is still in the distance, but rest assured every league will be watching how engaged and how profitable the AFL’s limited but grand experiment will be this season and going forward. If it works, the league which once tried to be a perfect spring feeder league to the NFL could become even more valuable with new business off the field than it ever has been in cultivating talent on the field.

The business of gambling gets to score again.

Janet Rome Talks Racing and Her Shared Belief

By America’s Best Racing for @TheDailyPayoff

Janet Rome is the wife of sports personality Jim Rome and the mother to their two sons, Jake and Logan. Together Jim and Janet own Jungle Racing, which has campaigned, in partnership, top racehorses including Mizdirection, Gypsy Robin and most recently champion Shared Belief, who is expected to be a heavy favorite in Saturday’s $1.5-million Charles Town Classic Stakes.

We sat down with janet recently to talk horses, racing, heroes and philosophy.

What does it feel like to own Shared Belief, the No. 1-ranked racehorse in the world?

It’s almost indescribable as it doesn’t even seem real. Shared Belief has taken us all on a ride of a lifetime. We love him, and we’re all just grateful to be a part of Team Shared Belief!

How and when I was introduced to Thoroughbred racing:

Growing up in Long Beach, Calif., about once a year my parents would take my brothers and me to Los Alamitos and Santa Anita Park. I remember how exciting it was to watch the horses run past. I didn’t really understand Thoroughbred racing until I was in the radio broadcasting business in San Diego. I would go with friends from the Noble Broadcast Group to Del Mar a few times during the season and we would have such memorable times.

Favorite race track(s):

Del Mar and Santa Anita. You can’t beat those beautiful views and weather anywhere!

My favorite Thoroughbred racing event:

The Breeders’ Cup.

Other sports/teams I follow:

West Coast Baseball Club’s 10- and 14-year-old teams. You can find this mom at their practices and games almost every night of the week.

What I would like to see more of in Thoroughbred racing:

More marketing and promotion to bring in a younger group of fans. More people involved in groups like CARMA, which raises funds for the care and retraining of retired Thoroughbreds.

For the complete interview, visit http://bit.ly/1OCqsYY

Derby Horses Inspire “Pacquiao” in New Ad

By The Daily Payoff @TheDailyPayoff

As the horse racing world nears the first of its annual trio of beloved races, its backers are looking for ways to capitalize on the other big sports betting event to be held the same day.
That would be the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather welterweight championship fight in Las Vegas, and the 141st Kentucky Derby in Louisville, KY.
With both huge events taking place on May 2, sports fans and betting types are being treated to major pre-race/fight hype.
Among the efforts are those by AmericasBestRacing.net, which unveiled a separate multi-series video ad campaign last week to signal the first leg of the Triple Crown run by the world’s best thoroughbreds.
The latest video by AmericasBestRacing.net, which will be followed by four more over the next three weeks, has a Pacquiao actor look-alike (Mike Palma) training while his manager Freddie Roach (actor Steve Brady) peppers him with an inspirational speech with the names of the Derby contenders. Spliced video of each horse is dropped into the ad along the way.

Derby Horses Find Way Into Big Fight Speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW4-qXrIbM0

E-sports and Vulcan, the Next Fantasy Wave

By Joe Favorito @JoeFav @TheDailyPayoff

A few weeks ago E-Sports veteran turned commentator Rod “Slasher” Bresleau was asked at a New York Sports Venture event what the next wave of fantasy sports will be.

The answer might have surprised a few audience members.

“Why not e-sports fantasy,” he said “These guys are engaging, have millions of followers, produce great content and are highly highly competitive. It is a natural fit just like any sport or series of athletes would be for the fantasy world,” he offered.

Then came the laughs.

Bresleau, one of the e-sports’ loudest voices, was dead serious though, and this past week some serious money came along to back up his prophesy.

Vulcun, a tournament site for fantasy e-sports, announced it raised $12 million in venture capital from Sequoia Capital and other investors, a sure sign that the watching of e-sports is getting as big as the playing of games like “World of Warcraft.”

The premise for Vulcun and its $1 Million prize pool is the same as any traditional fantasy sports platform, A fan assembles a team of his favorite e-sports players from games like WOW or League of Legends and puts real dollars against them during live competition.

Founder Ali Moiz told Venture Beat that the investment amazingly came along after running the game platform for 11 weeks, enough time to prove concept, gain followers and most importantly, snag big dollars.

“We had no idea that in just 11 weeks we’d be receiving such an investment. I am deeply humbled and grateful to the community for making this possible and for making Vulcun the No. 1 place where they choose to play fantasy e-sports games,” he said.

The story also said that about 858,000 teams have been created, with 6.7 million player picks. Vulcun has paid out $760,000 in prizes, and its top winners include Baldr, who won $32,000; yjingtong, who won $27,000; and RealAZMan, who won $18,000, according to Moiz.

Sequoia partner and Vulcun board member Omar Hamoui, added in a published statement, “We really believe in the long-term potential of e-sports and fantasy leagues. Vulcun allows fans to really participate in the thrill of competitive gaming at the highest levels, without the need to go pro. Vulcun founders Ali and Murti have a strong background in running a successful e-sports team and passionately believe in what they do.”

The issues with pay e-sports fantasy are much different than what is going on with the professional leagues in the United States, where ESPN and MLB recently invested in Draft Kings and a host of companies like the NBA and Comcast have anted up for Fan Duel.

Bresleau pointed out that each game in e-sports is like its own sport, so gaining knowledge enough to put dollars down on players needs a hyper local and affluent audience. He also pointed out that game fixing is becoming a bigger issue as e-sports grows professionally, with as many as 18 players being banned in the past six months for taking money to throw games in a highly unregulated marketplace.

Still the audience, at least 120 million online viewers in North America alone, is growing and companies are noticing, making e-sports pay fantasy an intriguing option for investors looking for a new “in” in what is becoming a fast moving and potentially profitable pay fantasy business down the road.

Football and baseball take note, the millennials may have a pay fantasy option of their own.

Augusta and Soccer, the Next Fantasy Frontiers

By Terry Lyons @terrylyons

Contributing columnist to @TheDailyPayoff

It’s early April and your March Madness bracket was busted long ago, your Kentucky Derby futures were long shots at best, and for Fantasy sports players, the NFL season is a distant memory and a deep freeze just delivered the coldest Opening Day of Baseball in recent memory.

Ballpark scenes complete with snow flurries, sleet and ice, left you less than intrigued at selecting your fantasy battery. The only thing left is either Fantasy Golf or Soccer.

NFL football, the dominant force in Fantasy Sports, is designated by 69.4% of fantasy players as their favorite faux sport, according to research compiled by industry gurus at Fantasy Sports Trade Association. In 2014, there were an estimated 41.5 million fantasy players, although those numbers are yet to reflect the millions who experimented in the Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) craze that is upon us in 2015.

DFS has created an industry upon itself as the two leaders, Draft Kings and Fan Duel, continue to shock sports business pundits and Wall Street analysts alike with enormous private equity investments, major sports leagues taking equity stakes, and newly confirmed reports of the Walt Disney Company sinking an estimated $250 million strategic investment into a new deal that will provide ESPN with ad revenue and fantasy sports players with ubiquitous exposure to the Draft Kings brand of daily fantasy.

The glut of offerings in the fantasy (American) football and baseball point to an opportunity for entrepreneurs looking elsewhere, possibly to the truly global games of Soccer and PGA Tour golf.

From a random sampling taken the evening before The Masters, golf’s most prestigious tournament, Draft Kings daily fantasy site was offering 4,410 contests related to MLB baseball, 1,677 contests for PGA golf, 1,388 contests for NBA basketball, 1,013 games for NHL hockey and 1,081 contests for European Premier League futbol (soccer). Mixed Martial Arts – an entity to be addressed at another time – had 440 contests awaiting.

In the world of golf, the contests were all for “Salary Cap” based games where the contestant was required to pick six PGA tour professionals competing at Augusta and fit them into a lineup that did not exceed $50,000 in value. As you would expect, the salary rankings of top players, such as Player of the Year Rory McIlroy, ranked in the $14,900 range while Masters champ Bubba Watson came in at $12,200, Augusta favorite Phil Mickelson was a more affordable $9,900 while Tiger Woods came in a seemingly affordable $9,400. The range spanned to the likes of aging champions Ben Crenshaw and Tom Watson who were listed at $4,800.

The ease of picking a simple sixsome and finding a contest that attracted your $1 minimum to $5,300 maximum investment provides a simple mechanism for sports fans to dabble in the world of DFS. This is in comparison to playing salary cap-based games in the NHL where you need to know the amount of ice time skated by the likes of Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon if you plan to compete against the sharks sitting in the Draft Kings’ “Head-to-Head” contest lobby.

Away from the daily offerings, traditional fantasy golf games have long been offered by Yahoo Sports, on the official site at PGATour.com and on the Golf Channel’s online site, but have fallen short in the eyes of many participants when it comes to format and prizes.

Golf Channel’s game is simple as you select a foursome, using either one or two players from various tiers of PGA pros, grouped as “A,” “B,” or “C” players. As a fail-safe, you also pick four bench players with a limit for the number of times you can use a single player, that being 10 times over the course of the full season. The Yahoo Sports golf game allows for team registration nearly all year and is geared towards having groups of players utilize the site for their own private game.

System-wide, it is impossible to catch-up to the overall leaders unless you’ve fielded a top-notch group of foursomes for each and every tournament. To try to avoid the severe drop-off of participants who cannot crack the leaders, Yahoo also carves the season into “Winter,” “Spring,” “Summer” and “Full Season” to allow for seasonal competitions. There is no entry fee, no sponsor but Draft Kings took banner ads on the site to lure potential players to their daily style of play.

Golf Channel runs a free game, sponsored by golf shoe maker Foot-Joy, that calls for participants to pick a foursome from PGA Tour players grouped in tiers with points awarded based on the money the players earn in the tournament. Again, the prize structure is weak, there’s no money prize pool and drop-off of participants over the rather long PGA Tour season is significant.

There are a number of software companies that run fantasy golf leagues, acting more as the commissioner or statistician for privately run leagues. One of the better sites is Fantasy Golf League Software which allows individual groups or “leagues” to customize their own versions of PGA Tour leagues, presumably with the traditional style of one league member being the proverbial Commissioner/Banker while acting as Judge and Jury if there are any discrepancies.

A private league run by friends of this reporter dubbed The Larry Bird Golf League is as simple as it can get. Participants name three golfers for each tournament each week and get credit for the golfer who earns the most money from each tournament’s prize pool. Once your player cashes, he’s done for the season while the other two you played remain eligible for another time.

We do some variations to keep people interested, including a special in-season competition for the Majors and even a new “Skins Game” concept to reward a Fantasy Team who is the only team in the league to pick a tourney winner. That “Skin” has yet to be cashed as of the Masters.

In soccer, the challenge of picking winners is similar to ice hockey, where a deep knowledge of every roster and every player by position (Goal-keepers, defense, midfielders and strikers (forwards) is needed in order to play intelligently.

The key difference in playing DFS soccer is that the schedule is so different than that of the NBA, NHL and MLB, with the majority of matches held on Wednesday or Saturdays. In Draft Kings’ soccer, the salary cap listed Tottenham’s Harry Kane at $10,700 and Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud at $10,300 and the lower-level roster players at $3,000. Thankfully, the figures were not calculated in Pounds Sterling.

The sharps tend to play the best players in soccer at home, but, keep in mind, most of the action on the sport of soccer is done via the High Street bookies who take action on everything from the outcome of the game to who scores the first goal. The need for salary cap style fantasy is not nearly as attractive as action on the game itself, so a smart fantasy soccer play might be better promoted to the growing American soccer audience being taught the nuances of the game by NBC Sports Network coverage.

As of yet, MLS soccer has yet to spawn much interest via mainstream fantasy players, yet interested players need not look any further than MLS.com where you are asked to build an 18-player roster with a $120 million salary cap with the offering of some $10,000 in prize money. To be eligible for prizes, a contestant must be from the 50 United States or Canada, according to site rules.

MondoGoal, a new start-up without the bankroll of Draft Kings or Fan Duel, is going “all-in” on fantasy soccer with offerings of daily cash leagues involving Premiere League, MLS, Spanish, Italian, German Bundesliga, Champions League and even plans for a special Women’s World Cup league this summer.

MondoGoal is concentrating on a more “European” and “Worldwide” audience, rather than the American fantasy audience and the start-up has partnered with some of the most well known football clubs in Europe, including FC Barcelona, AS Roma, Chelsea FC and Manchester City, among others.

Fan Duel has yet to delve into Daily Fantasy soccer or golf and is heavily promoting their association with the NBA, the league which shocked the gaming world by taking an equity stake in the company which is operating off a massive $70 million dollar raise which surfaced last September.

The step to consider from this brief round-up? After scouting The Masters this weekend and enjoying the pristine atmosphere and springlike weather of Augusta, try a daily Fantasy sports golf tournament next weekend. It’ll be a new tradition, unlike any other.

For further information, visit the following sites:

Golf Channel: https://fantasy.golfchannel.com/

Fantasy Golf League Software: http://www.fglweb.com/fglmain.php

MLS Soccer fantasy game: http://fantasy.mlssoccer.com/

MondoGoal: https://mondogoal.com

Link to Fan Duel $70 million investment story in WSJ: http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/09/02/fanduel-raises-70-million-as-daily-fantasy-sports-battle-heats-up/

March Madness Contest nets Big Payoff for Baseball Charity

By The Daily Payoff @TheDailyPayoff

It was a great opening day for baseball Monday and even a better day for Harlem RBI, as Goldman Sachs CEO Gary Cohen won the Bloomberg Bracket Challenge, the media company’s winner-take-all charity March Madness event.

Thirty-six leaders from top corporations and financial institutions each pledged $10,000 for the NCAA basketball tournament challenge, with Cohen and the baseball charity Harlem RBI taking the top spot.

Cohen had all The Final Four participants in his bracket, which amassed 170 points and will bring $360,000 of support to the inner-city program. He bested Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers who had all Final Four participants and 156 points and Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Paglialuca, who also had a perfect Final Four and had 154 points.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Cohn said he “put his Cleveland upbringing to use in perfectly predicting the men’s college basketball Final Four. It wasn’t dumb luck at all. I look at the two Midwest guys, Dan Gilbert (Cavaliers owner and Quicken Loans founder) and myself, picking Michigan State and Wisconsin to be in the Final Four. For guys that watch Big Ten basketball, it was pretty obvious.” Gilbert fell from second to fourth in the final standings, as he went with Kentucky to best Wisconsin on Saturday.

Harlem RBI builds charter schools and playgrounds and develops after-school and family programs for inner city youth. The $360,000 will go toward expanding pre-kindergarten and other school programs and building a baseball field in the country’s poorest congressional district, located in the South Bronx.

LA Lakers President Jeanie Buss ended up at the bottom of the pool with 90 points, just behind Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, whose loyalties went with his alama mater the University of Maryland and one of his brands’ biggest partners, Notre Dame.

To see all of Cohen’s thoughts click here
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-04-02/how-did-goldman-president-gary-cohn-pick-his-final-four-

Triple Crown Video Ad Seeks to Build Interest in Horse Races

By Frank Scandale @Fscandale

Poet Robert Frost may have immortalized the phrase, “The Road Less Traveled,” but a new video ad campaign seeks to put a new spin on it as momentum builds for the first leg of horse racing’s most coveted jewel – the Triple Crown.

Launched by America’s Best Racing, the four-part series promotes the road to the Triple Crown, arguably one of the most difficult titles in sports. The first ad kicked off today (Monday, April 6) and is called appropriately, “The Road Less Traveled: The Road to the Triple Crown.”

The first video, http://youtu.be/BAxtFGM05bw , employs a narrative effect on what it takes to be great by invoking the names of great athletes of our recent generation, such as Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and Chicago Bulls great Michael Jordan. A 1958 Chevy Apache truck rolling down the the road in lush horse country while the narrator waxes poetic achieves its goal of building interest in the Derby on May 2, the Preakness on May 16 and the final leg, the Belmont Stakes on June 6.

Shot in Kentucky, the successive videos will be rolled April 13, April 20 and May 6, a few days after the first leg of the Triple Crown is run in Louisville.

The Triple Crown has only happened on 11 occasions since 1919, with the last time occurring in 1978, when Affirmed captured the title. Prior to that, Secretariat, also mentioned in the first video ad, broke a 25-year drought, according to BelmontStakes.com. Twenty one horses have come into the Belmont Stakes last leg with two victories under their belts, only to fall short on the final attempt

A 3-year-old Thoroughbred must win three races – Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes, each at a different distance – over the span of five weeks. Despite the overwhelming odds, the annual quest to capture this coveted crown attracts millions of viewers. According to Nielsen Ratings, 20.6 million viewers tuned into NBC to watch the California Chrome’s quest fall short at the Belmont Stakes.

The ads will utilize the hashtag #RoadtoTC and will pop up on Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo.com, says America’s Best Racing’s release. The ads can be seen on www.AmericasBestRacing.net, which will also feed updates, news, blogs, photos and gambling insights for all three races.

Draft Kings’ Latest Moves Seek Royalty Status of Pay Fantasy

By The Daily Payoff @TheDailyPayoff

Experts will say a key factor in driving business is healthy competition.
“You want to be the Avis to their Hertz,” the late Jay Larkin, former head of Showtime Sports, once said, when referring to his network’s ability to create opportunities for boxing when going up against rival HBO. “Healthy competition makes for a great marketplace and challenges you to do better and stay sharp. Without it, you go flat.”

Perhaps the same can be said of the pay fantasy space, where competition was at its peak last week. The attacker brand in the multi-billion dollar business, Boston-based Draft Kings , put on a 48-hour splurge of competitive activity that would have made Larkin very pleased.

On Thursday it was revealed that Major League Baseball Advanced Media had renewed its investment with Draft Kings and had used that investment to push the brand forward as the league’s official pay fantasy partner.

Later on Thursday it was also learned through industry sources that the company would be the official and exclusive partner of all Major League Baseball teams. The move effectively locked out its bigger rival, Fan Duel, from a critical growth area in pay fantasy, the sport of baseball and the millions of dollars in transactions and promotion that will take place as Opening Day arrives this weekend.

It was the first time that a team or a league with an investment had moved to lock out a competitor with its clubs, making Thursday a landmark day for the brand and the business.

Then late on Friday, The Sports Business Journal broke the long-rumored story that ESPN was going to make an equity investment in Draft Kings, with a number in the range of $250 million while valuing the company at roughly $900 million. http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/SB-Blogs/On-The-Ground/2015/04/0403-ESPN-DraftKings.aspx

The key component of the deal, Sports Business Journal reported, will be a premium ad spend by Draft Kings across ESPN, somewhere in the range of $50 million, with lots of incentives and cross promotions factored into the deal. The official announcement will not come until May when Draft Kings announces its next round of funding.

“An affiliation with ESPN is industry redefining,” Geoff Reiss, a former ESPN executive who was in a similar position two decades ago when ESPN parent Disney bought Starwave, which became ESPN.com told SBJ in their story. “ESPN represents the largest and most consistent promotional platform in sports for daily fantasy. The only other kingmaker as far as this industry goes is the NFL.”

All this rapid news for Draft Kings is by no means the end of the road for the much larger Fan Duel business. The New York-based company received a similar investment from Comcast Corp.’s venture arm last year, and has the NBA as an equity investor as well, along with an engaged audience which some experts say is about 60 percent bigger than Draft Kings.

The company also had a huge share of the very lucrative pay fantasy space for football this past fall, and with the NFL announcing last month that teams will now be able to take on pay fantasy partners in 2015 for the first time, the competition to have affiliate partners market by market will be very heated.

By the way, Draft Kings has an investment from Kraft Sports Group as well, and has announced partnerships with both the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos in place.

The “official” partnership with MLB for Draft Kings in no way excludes Fan Duel from pay fantasy baseball in any way either, as the data used for games can be licensed from any number of sources. It limits exposure and the use of rights and likenesses but does not mean that Fan Duel could not buy advertising on broadcasts or partner with former players on endorsement deals. Their trove of marketing dollars is very deep, which has propelled them to a leadership position in the space to date.

Despite the massive investments in both fantasy companies, multiple reports suggest neither is near profitability yet, as the space is still too new, and the dollars too small, to bring either company into the black.

“It’s the Wild West for sure, with everyone trying to position themselves for leadership in a growing space,” added Chris Lencheski, a longtime sports marketer now running the firm Phoenicia. “The hedge for all these companies is legalized wagering at some point in the future, which will lift the pay fantasy business beyond where it is. But for now it certainly is impressive what Draft Kings has done, and it will be interesting to see Fan Duel’s next moves as well.”

Officials for ESPN, Draft Kings and Fan Duel declined comment Friday, which was of course Good Friday for many, but a Great Friday for Draft Kings and their backers .

Atlantic City Shares Economic Challenges of US Cities

By Frank Scandale @FScandale

The chips may be down for the Atlantic City Alliance, but its leader still believes in the city synonomous with Miss America, salt water taffy and, of course, lots of slots.
Jeff Guaracino, the executive director of the marketing arm of the East Coast’s gambling mecca, has seen his share of challenges in the short time he has been at the helm.

National economic shortfalls that cities all over the United States are facing and a major shift in tourism habits have all contributed to Atlantic City’s troubles, he noted.

Reports of falling casino revenues, casino bankruptcies and pending sales have dominated the headlines in New Jersey and beyond for some time now. But what could have been done differently if he could turn back to clock in an effort to reverse the trend that has put the Alliance in its precarious spot?

“I’ve only been in AC for two years. Cities all over the country are finding economic challenges that they didn’t anticipate,’” Guaracino said. “For Atlantic City, our challenge is we need more diversification in terms of jobs. Other cities have issues too – pensions, jobs, changing economy, people changing vacation patterns. It’s universal. Of course for us, it’s also the expansion of gambling.
“Also the consumer is changing.” he said. “A gambler in his 60s and 70s is not same as a gambler in his 30s. What they are looking for in a group and communal experience is different.”

The Alliance finds itself on the wrong end of pending legistlation to disband the agency, part of an overall plan to pay down the city’s debt. While the legislation is pending, published reports say the casinos on the agency’s board have already voted to disband it, taking with it the $30 million annual budget used to market the city and its attributes.

The agency had been funded through 2016, Guaracino explained, thus relieving a $60 million obligation by the disbanding.

“We are caught in Atlantic City’s $140 million shortfall. There’s a giant shift in the gambling capacity…we are waiting to see where things stand.”

Giant shift as in Maryland and Ohio, for instance, each of which has added casinos in each of the las

t several years, putting more pressure on Atlantic City to compete. Tax revenue from those casinos helps fill state coffers. Maryland pulls from Atlantic City and Pennsylvania, for instance.

Guaracino said some money might still be in play, possibly repurposing some cash to put them more in line with tourism in other cities. After all, he says the city has other assets to offer tourists beyond casino life.

He quickly points to the variety of restaurants outside the casino walls, ticking off a melting pot of authentic ethnic cuisine – Italian, Mexican and Vietnamese, to name a few. His favorite haunt? “I don’t have favorites. Someboody would get mad then.”

Touche’.

Guaracino likes to tout the shopping at high-end outlets and the working port in the city’s historic Gardiner’s Basin as tourism hot spots beyond the gambling draw as reasons the city is still viable.

If Guaracino had a crystal ball, what would he see?

“The beach and the boardwalk were there long before we were born, and will be there long after we are dead,” he quipped. “People will always want to be near the beach. It will survive, but the question is what will its long-term future look like?”

UPDATE: MLB Re-ups and Extends Fantasy Deal With Draft Kings

By The Daily Payoff @TheDailyPayoff

Just hours after The Daily Payoff took a look at the opportunities that exist for MLB and Pay Fantasy now that Opening Day is in view, MLB and Boston-based Draft Kings announced an extension to their equity partnership, giving DK a marketing leg up on Fan Duel just as the weather warms.

The news was first reported by Darren Heitner at Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2015/04/02/draftkings-and-major-league-baseball-extend-exclusive-partnership/ .

The exclusive deal with the league includes a team component that apparently prevents competitors from partnering with any of the teams, The Daily Payoff has learned.The agreement leaves each team to work out individual deals with Draft Kings, but apparently precludes them from working out a business relationship with Fan Duel.

The game changer in this deal is exclusivity. While Draft Kings has an investment from the NBA it did not exclude teams from securing partnerships with a competitor. If the MLB deal does include team exclusivity as has been indicated, it would be the first time a league will effectively lock out one of the two major players in the space, along with several smaller ones looking to get in, which signals a big escalation in the business for Draft Kings over the very long and very intense baseball season.

This is probably brought about by one of the key differences in baseball with other sports. MLB Advanced Media is in control of most of the sites in both Major and Minor League Baseball. The club’s revenue sharing agreement on digital is more restrictive than say, the NBA or the NHL, which means the opportunity to sell almost against MLBAM makes team exclusivity a much easier fit, and makes Draft Kings a much bigger player in terms of numbers than they are right now.

Is MLB Ready To Hit A Pay Fantasy Homer?

By The Daily Payoff Staff @TheDailyPayoff

As we head toward baseball’s Opening Day this weekend, the question remains where does the MLB stand on joining the fantasy wave?

The NFL recently opened the door opening for teams to engage in daily pay fantasy partnerships, joining both the NBA and the NHL in creating extra revenue streams for the teams. The move also provided engagement opportunities for fans who are looking for more and unique ways to follow their favorite teams, now with a dollar figure attached.

However baseball is still silent on the opportunity, either as a league or with clubs, for pay fantasy. Could a break be coming soon? MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said again this week in an interview with MLB.com that he understands and supports the value of fantasy baseball as a way to engage. He has said numerous times that MLB, like the NBA, needs to consider the possibilities of working to find ways to make gambling legal for fans in North America like it is in other parts of the world.

Sports media observers say MLB sees the value and the opportunities, but will jump in when the time is right for it.

“When they are ready,” said Dan Cohen, now head of North America for MP & Silva, one of the world’s largest sports media sales companies and a growing player in the digital activation space for teams and leagues. “There is no doubt that baseball is a data-rich sport and fans love digging into the numbers and MLB has seized that opportunity over the years. However they will balance the pros and cons of official pay fantasy engagement as a sport, and will make the call when they see the full opportunity. Everyone sees what other leagues and teams are doing, and MLB will be able to have any partnership they want when the time is right.”

Manfred has also said on numerous occasions that finding ways to keep a younger audience involved with baseball is a priority, and that the gaming industry could be a key factor there.

“MLB is aiming to find more ways to inspire children’s passion for baseball. If kids are interested in fantasy baseball and stats, they could be on track to becoming passionate lifelong fans. That’s exactly what we want to achieve. If tracking batting average or ERA helps kids build some fundamental skills, then we welcome all of those practical applications,” Manfred said in an MLB.com interview this week.

So why not a partnership yet, or some form of open agreement for clubs to partner with companies like Draft Kings (who MLB Advanced Media has made an investment in but has not yet activated against) of New York-based Fan Duel or both?

The NBA made an investment in Fan Duel but left the teams the opportunity to cut their own team-specific deals, which has resulted in a mix of partnerships for pay fantasy, a mix which the teams benefit from by playing one of the mega-companies against the other. There are also smaller companies, like New Jersey-based Hotbox Sports, which cut their own team deals with the Philadelphia 76ers.

So when will baseball, with the most savvy digital business in sports under Bob Bowman, and the most data-rich of any sport, engage in pay fantasy partnerships?

Part of it still may reside in the hesitancy of baseball, a sport whose commissioner’s role came about as a result of a gambling scandal (albeit in 1919 with the Black Sox), to still make the change that “gambling,” whether it is legal like pay fantasy or not, is still frowned upon.

No one has to look any further than the Pete Rose ban to wonder how strict baseball still will be on circumventing rules involving dollars wagered in any form and baseball, and this week Mason Levinson at Bloomberg reported that MLB in the offseason put measures in place so that no players could be involved in pay fantasy in any way as well, an escalation of the anti-gambling policy for the sport.

It is the first time players won’t be permitted to join paid fantasy baseball leagues, following an agreement between the sport and the MLBPA, an agreement which the NBA and the NBAPA have failed to reach for their players. The MLB deal, according to the story, doesn’t limit players’ ability to sign sponsorship deals or other business transactions with fantasy sites, however, creating a bit of a paradox. Also no leagues prohibit their players from legal gambling on other sports, which can only be done right now in Nevada. Pay fantasy however, moves such wagers to one’s smart phone.

“We are certainly in unchartered waters with lots of dollars at stake, and the leagues are taking very careful measures not to circumvent anything going on in Washington with regard to federal laws on gambling,” said Chris Lencheski, a longtime sports media consultant now running his own firm, Phoencia. “However there is no doubt that everyone sees the dollars out there and pay fantasy is the next step to take advantage of for the teams and the leagues and at some point soon, the players will also look for their share of the action.”

For now, the league and the teams play a wait-and-see game. Will it be a short term wait or will the game deepest in tradition continue to be outside the pay fantasy lines? For now, no one is saying officially, from Draft Kings and Fan Duel, which did not return calls, to several teams, who refused comment.

As fans settle in to make their final choices for the fantasy baseball season, the clock is ticking.

Win $1 million Playing Basketball

NCAA Basketball Tournament - Second Round - Milwaukee

A winner-take-all $1 million tournament opened for business today, as The Basketball Tournament (TBT) single-elimination competition started its run for the money.

And the ESPN glory.

For the next 60 days, teams have a chance to enroll in the unprecedented $1 million prize and a chance to play on ESPN.

“The interest in the event has surpassed our expectations since we announced the prize money and our ESPN partnership, and we think people will be both amazed and impressed with the teams that will be enrolling in the coming weeks,” said Jonathan Mugar, Founder of The Basketball Tournament. ”The competiveness, quality and depth of play in year one was impressive, and we already know that this year’s entrants will take the event to an even higher level.”

Entry into TBT is free, with an application period that runs from April 1st through June 1st. The only way for teams to qualify is to organize themselves and recruit votes via TheTournament.com. To be considered for entry, teams must consist of a General Manager (GM), at least seven players, and have 100+ votes. GMs will create team profiles on TheTournament.com in hopes of garnering enough votes to get an automatic bid to the tournament by the June 1st application deadline. Applicants must be 18 or older.

Fans who have registered on TheTournament.com will vote for their favorite teams, and 18 teams per region will be selected solely based on how many fan votes they are able to recruit online. TBT will invite six additional teams to play in each region based on creativity and talent.

Fans have 50,000 reasons to push for their teams. For the first time anywhere, the winning team’s fan group will share 5% ($50,000) of the overall prize.

Opening rounds for the 96 team field begin July 10-12 at regional sites in Los Angeles and Atlanta and continue July 17-19 in Chicago and Philadelphia. Play continues on Thursday, July 23, when defending champion Notre Dame Fighting Alumni meet the lower seeded Chicago entrant in the opening game of the Super 17 live from Chicago and televised on ESPNU.

Play continues the following day on Friday, July 24, from Chicago, with the Round of 16, which TBT will live stream. ESPNU will then carry all four Quarterfinal games onSaturday July 25, marathon coverage, live from Chicago. Whoever makes it out of Chicago will then travel to New York City for the semifinals on Saturday, August 1, carried live on ESPN. The next day, Sunday, August 2, the two finalists will play in the winner-take-all, $1 Million Championship Game, at3pm ET on ESPN.

In 2015, up to 96 teams plus defending champion Notre Dame Fighting Alumni will play for a grand prize of $1 Million, doubling last year’s prize of $500,000.4

Venues in each city will be announced shortly.

Philadelphia University and Boston University played host to the first tournament in June of 2014. In the championship game, the Notre Dame Fighting Alumni (led by former All BIG EAST players Torin Francis, Chris Thomas, Russell Carter) defeated tournament favorite Team Barstool (led by Ross Burns, Dave Portnoy, Dan Katz and several players with NBA experience, including Los Angeles Clipper Dahntay Jones), 72-68, to win the event and the $500,000. The Notre Dame Fighting Alumni will be back to defend their title in 2015.

ABOUT THE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

Conceived by CEO Mugar as the ultimate opportunity for fans, athletes and social media mavens to create teams and then participate in a high-stakes, professionally run and organized sporting event, The Basketball Tournament is a winner-take-all single elimination open competition for players 18 years of age or older.

In its first season, The Basketball Tournament drew over 100 potential team entries from around the country with 32 teams ultimately making the field. Participants ranged from professional players and recent college talent to local legends and pickup basketball stars. An overwhelming success in its launch year, the event is doubling in size in 2015. Among the advisors for the event are sports industry veterans Tony Ponturo of Ponturo Management Group, Andy Dolich of Dolich Consulting, and Len DeLuca of Len DeLuca & Associates, LLC.

Egaming: Bigger Than The NHL?

By Joe Favorito @JoeFav

“We are going to be bigger than the NHL,” declared Major League Gaming head Mike Sepso several months ago about the growth of his company and the sport of E-Gaming.

And to hear the numbers thrown around on engagement Tuesday night at a New York Sports Venture Group forum on the fast-rising sport, it might be hard to argue his claim.

For the uninformed, especially those over 30, Rod “Slasher” Bresleau, perhaps the most informed media member on Egaming and now the lead for the first Egaming news website portal “The Score” in Canada, explained the phenomenon in the simplest of terms.

“If you look at the games themselves, like World of Warcraft, as a sport unto itself like soccer, then view the industry and all its individual games as the Olympics or the XGames,” he added. “Each game has its own stars, its own storylines and its own followers, many of which are now in the millions, and all are very engaged consumers of every aspect, both as a player and as a viewer.”

How engaged? Both Craig Levine of ESL, one of the largest event creators and developers in the space, and Don Reilley EVP of Global Sales for MLG, talked about stadium audiences in the tens of thousands and viewership in the tens of millions, easily eclipsing traditional sports viewership in some of the biggest events.

“Everything that I thought would happen is happening,” Reilly said about the growth. ”We have to balance the needs of the people at the events with those of the people watching at home, watching their favorite players.”

Levine mentioned sellout crowds watching gaming events in places ranging from Korea and Croatia to New York and Seattle, with fans showing up armed with dollars to buy merchandise just like they would for a hometown sports team. The difference is really in the audience demo, which is the one that brands and traditional sports leagues crave; the dominant egame follower, according to most research is male, 18-34, highly engaged and very passionate about every aspect of the game he follows. Think UFC and NASCAR of a new era.

So what is the secret sauce for egaming? Reilley said that for MLG it’s not that different at all from what brands and broadcasters have been doing for 50 years on television, albeit with a key twist.

“We provide great content for a passionate audience, most of the time with events in a live environment, just like the networks have done with MLB or the NFL for 50 years. It is that live engaged audiences that brands crave and are now activating against,” he said. “However the big difference is in how and where we engage. Unlike traditional broadcasts our audience does not have to be plugged in. They can engage on whatever device they choose and do so wherever they are. We deliver the programming to them however they like, and that is what sets us apart from traditional sports right now.”

Another aspect of egaming’s success has been the accessibility of the gamers to an engaged audience. Like the UFC of five years ago or the NHL of 10 years ago or NASCAR, egaming providers boast about the ease of contact fans have with the elite players. Send them a text or an email and you get a response, and the response is seen by millions, not just a few hundred.

That sort of access, they claim, is what is missing from today’s traditional sports, where despite all the trimmings of social media, athletes are locked behind a wall of handlers, team officials and brands who say the stars of baseball, football and basketball are accessible, but in reality the chance to email Bryce Harper or Kobe Bryant and get a response is less than zero.

“Because we are still evolving and the elite players are almost of the same age and background of many of their fans, the relationship is different and is much more intimate right now,” added Levine. “That means a great deal to a generation that is used to access without barriers, and that type of access has great value to brands as well.”

The numbers for egaming engagement that are thrown around are certainly staggering. Over 32 million live followers for a recent “World of Warcraft” event. A gate of over 30,000 for a live event in Croatia, a billion dollar investment made by Amazon to buy streaming service Twitch, which provides highlights from any series of games to millions of followers 24/7. But for all the success, there are some growing pains.

“It’s the Wild West for sure,” Bresleau told the packed room of approximately 150 representing a wide spectrum of interests. “Companies come into the space with a great deal of capital and find ways to engage with fans, and the people with the real brand value, the players, are now seeing greater opportunity to monetize their success at a new level. Right now it’s all great and any success helps the sport, but down the road there may be a consolidation as the business settles in.”

Another example of global growing pains comes in the form of what traditional sports have seen; game fixing. Bresleau added that as many as 18 professional players in the past few months have been banned for fixing games for money. Illegal gambling it seems, has also found itself into big time gaming.

There is also the question of wider appeal to a casual fan who would be willing to watch egaming in person or online, along with the question of whether massive stadium events are just one-off phenomenon’s or are they able to sustain a repeat audience. It is a similar question the UFC has had to address time and again as a new sport on the traditional block, and they too have handled the issue well.

“We see a fan as one who is very engaged and he or she will come back again if they have an amazing experience,” Levine added. “We can’t oversaturate a market and we are still building, but all signs are the business sis not just here to stay, it is growing at a very fast rate.”

And what about traditional sports as a form of egaming? Millions has been spent on creating marketing and selling products like FIFA 2015 and Madden for years, but those sports games, although successful, have not migrated into the new egaming space.

“Those games are great for their audience, but when you can watch a live NBA or NFL game with real stars playing it, the level of professional egaming is diminished,” Bresleau added. “What captured the egaming world is the ability for the gamer to really be someone else, to travel to another planet or be a superhero or an elite warrior, that’s the transcendent appeal that is drawing millions in.”

And are the elite gamers actually athletes like those in the NBA or NFL or the Olympics? “They train, they travel, they sacrifice and they have great skill, so my argument is yes and it’s why egaming is an amazing sport,” Bresleau added.

The panelists all believe that despite the mainstream media covering egaming as a novelty event up until now, coverage of the live events and the sport itself is about to ramp up considerably.

Engaged audiences, young demo, brand activation, young stars and global appeal. Egaming is rising fast, and it will be interesting to see how high and how far it will go as a business of the future. Look out not just NHL, but MLS, MLB and anyone else in a traditional business. The sports world is changing.