Category Archives: NFL

FanDuel Grows NBA Platform

By @TheDailyPayoff

While DraftKings relationship with MLB and their enhancements in golf have given them great buzz this early summer, FanDuel continues its focus on the winter and its two core sports, says its chief executive.
CEO Nigel Eccles said football and basketball remain its focus, taking the opportunity with the NBA Draft Thursday to announced an expansion of its NBA partnerships for the fall at Tuesday’s FSTA Conference in New York,

FanDuel locked in exclusive multi-year partnerships with 13 league franchises – the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Orlando Magic and Utah Jazz.
The deal hands FanDuel marketing assets from in-arena digital signage and in-game promotions to digital, TV and radio advertising, among other branding initiatives. FanDuel will also collaborate with the individual organizations to continue to bring unique experiences to fans, including exclusive player meet-and-greets and VIP road trips to events.
“Partnering with these NBA organizations has been an incredible asset to FanDuel’s growth and business. NBA fans comprise a younger, mobile-centric demographic, looking for new ways to engage with their favorite sport, teams and athletes throughout the duration of the season, which is exactly what they get on FanDuel,” said Nigel Eccles, CEO and co-founder, in a release. “We’re going to keep partnering with franchises that recognize FanDuel’s ability to keep fans in their seat with their eyes glued to every game because they have a player on their fantasy team that night.”

During the conference the value of pay fantasy was again backed up by NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum in an interview with Eric Fisher of The Sports Business Journal.
“We have made our stance clear that we do not see pay fantasy as gambling, and it is a prime way for us to engage deeper with our fans,” Tatum said. “Our fans and our teams have made it clear that this is a growing engagement platform and we are excited about continuing to work to enhance our relationship.”

While not exclusive with the NBA, FanDuel has made it clear that their key business objectives and their growth strategy is revolving around the activation and engagement with the NBA, as well as their recently announced partnerships with a majority of the NFL teams. The NFL remains the least engaged league in an official capacity in pay fantasy, with MLB having taken up an equity position with DraftKings and Fan Duel with the NBA. Several NBA teams, including the New York Knicks, have chosen to partner with DraftKings as part of a wider cross-promotional strategy, but Eccles remains bullish on the overall basketball relationship as the core of Fan Duel’s platform in 2015 and beyond.

High Stakes Game in TV Ratings

By TERRY LYONS, contributing columnist @TheDailyPayoff
@terrylyons

American Pharoah’s run to the Triple Crown grabbed our fair share of attention recently, watching intently as the once-in-a-generation thoroughbred won graded stakes at Churchill Downs, Pimlico and Belmont Raceway.

American Pharoah delivered on the track, but his Triple Crown win translated into only 18.6 million television viewers on NBC, down from the 20.6 million fans who tuned into California Chrome’s failed bid at The Belmont in 2014. When Pharoah had the Triple Crown on the line at The Belmont, you might’ve thought the stakes were as high as they’d get ,but as spring turns to summer and the stretch-run at Belmont is in the rearview, there’s no higher stakes in professional sports than that of the TV ratings game.

Certainly the National Hockey League and NBC benefitted from a strong audience lead-in from The Belmont, as Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final calculated a tune-in of 6.6 million viewers for Game 2 of the series between the Tampa Bay Lightening and Chicago Blackhawks, the strongest non-clinching game TV audience since 1994. The data will improve as the Stanley Cup series, split 2-2 as of this writing, moves on to Tampa for a pivotal fifth game.

Meanwhile, after the longest break in NBA playoff history between the Conference Finals and the NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers are in the midst of a memorable NBA Finals series, with MVP Steph Curry of the Warriors and the league’s best player, Lebron James of the Cavs doing battle on the court. However, the real numbers are being crunched off the court by the Disney Corporation, the caretakers of ABC Sports, cash cow cable entity ESPN and the NBA on ESPN property.

As of this writing, the 2015 NBA Finals are the highest-rated ever on ABC with Game 4 delivering a 13.9 overnight rating to be joined with the league’s soaring numbers after the first three games of the Finals. Those ratings points translate to some 18.6 million viewers turning into the series, with the numbers — like the NHL’s — sure to go up as the league is guaranteed no fewer than six games to determine the champion.

Delving deeper into the NBA on ABC numbers, the Nielsen ratings in Game 4 were up 31 percent from the Miami vs. San Antonio numbers of a year ago with the ABC ratings averaging 13.1 (overnight), up some 26 percent over 2014. Of course, those are record-setting numbers for ABC Sports and do not factor against the record numbers the NBA did when NBC Sports carried the property. During that run, veteran broadcast chief Dick Ebersol put the pedal to the metal to promote Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls to the tune of a Game 6 1998 NBA Finals record rating of 18 No fewer than 30 million tuned into the NBA from United States households, alone, never mind the growing international audience for basketball.

To be clear, the television ratings game of the winter-spring sports, such as horse racing, ice hockey and basketball cannot and will not compete with the television audience for the NFL’s biggest game – The Super Bowl. Last February, the New England Patriots exciting victory over the Seattle Seahawks saw a Nielsen rating blockbuster of 47.5 that translated to a US audience of 114.4 million viewers for the NFL and TV’s biggest audience of the year. Quite simply, there will never be a sporting audience viewing a game on TV that is larger than the NFL’s Super Bowl audience.

The other interesting point of comparison in the high stakes ratings game for televised sports properties in Major League Baseball which saw an 8.2 ratings average and 13.8 million viewers tune into the 2014 World Series, according to Sports Media Watch. Between Jordan’s last game in 1998 and 2008, the World Series consistently out-rated the NBA Finals. But, over the past five years (2010-2014), the NBA Finals has out-rated Major League Baseball’s World Series and the trend is surely going to continue in 2015, unless October brings about a miracle story (Insert Chicago Cubs joke here!)

One other interesting factor in televised sports ratings is to look at the numbers from the competing local markets. In Cleveland, Game 4 of the NBA Finals generated a 45.7 rating for the 20+ point Golden State blowout of the Cavs. In the Bay Area (SF market), the broadcast delivered a solid 30.5 rating. Pretty amazing audience numbers for the NBA which was largely criticized, especially by NASCAR and Fox Sports tv executives, when the 2003 NBA Finals drew all-time ratings lows of 6.5 for the New Jersey Nets vs. San Antonio Spurs series.
That was a long time ago.

Tony Romo slams National Football League’s casino puritanism

The National Football League seems hell-bent on living up to its unofficial ‘No Fun League” nickname.

On Tuesday, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo went on ESPN to protest the NFL’s forced cancellation of the National Fantasy Football Convention at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas. Romo, who was the headline attraction among multiple NFL players scheduled to attend the event, expressed regret at the league having seen fit to ‘remind’ the NFL Players Association of the league’s intermittently enforced policy against association of its brand with casinos.

Romo complained that the NFL hadn’t bothered to reach out to either the NFFC’s organizers or himself and suggested that the way it was handled “does make it sound sometimes like it’s an issue about money, which is disappointing.” Romo accused the NFL of “almost scaring” the players scheduled to attend the NFFC, which to Romo “just seems silly” and “makes you think it was just about money.”

Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese joined in the skewering, saying the NFL “has a credibility gap on this issue the size of the Grand Canyon.” Reese noted the number of NFL teams that had inked partnerships with daily fantasy sports operators “but a convention in Las Vegas is a bridge too far? It’s about time the NFL comes down from its ivory tower.”

NFL scraps fantasy sports convention; NHL commissioner’s sports betting myopia

Hypocrisy was on full display on Friday as the National Football League forced the cancellation of a fantasy sports convention and the National Hockey League’s boss revealed a hugely selective blind spot.

On Friday, word spread that the NFL had pulled the rug out from underneath a fantasy football convention that was scheduled to take place in July at a casino in Las Vegas. The National Football Fantasy Convention (NFFC), a three-day affair fronted by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo along with a number of other NFL players in attendance, was to be held at the Sands Expo, a convention space offshoot of Las Vegas Sands’ Venetian Resort Hotel Casino.

The NFCC released a statement saying they were “postponing” their inaugural event until July 2016 due to “sudden and unexpected opposition taken by the NFL concerning player participation and their perceived association with gambling for an event in Las Vegas.” The NFCC says its 2016 event will now take place in Los Angeles.

An NFL spokesman told Fox Sports that “players and NFL personnel may not participate in the promotional activities or other appearances or in connection with events that are held at or sponsored by casinos.” For the record, Sands Expo contains no gambling facilities.

Yahoo to offer first free live stream of NFL regular season

Internet colossus Yahoo has won exclusive rights to deliver the first-ever free and live streaming of National Football League (NFL) regular season to users worldwide.

Yahoo will broadcast the October 25th International Series game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars from London’s Wembley Stadium.

The parties did not disclose the deal amount, but Re/Code reported that Yahoo could have paid at least $20m to stream the game in exchange for advertising rights, citing executives who were familiar with the industry.

The NFL has advertising partnerships with NBC and FOX but for the first time, the NFL games will be streaming one of its regular season games online.

Deflategate Suspension Shifts Odds on Patriots’ Super Bowl Chances

By Frank Scandale @Fscandale @TheDailyPayoff
Las Vegas odds makers say the four-game suspension meted out to Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady triggered adjustments in their outlook on the Super Bowl champs repeating, but all bets are off on final lines until an appeal is heard.
For those who put the season opener against Pittsburgh back on the board, their point spread against Pittsburgh also got much tighter.
All of this might have been expected given untested, back-up quarterback Jimmy Garappolo is the likely on-deck replacement. But what is still uncertain for odds makers is how many games ultimately Brady will be suspended on appeal, which was filed by Brady Thursday and agreed to be heard personally by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

That decision by Goodell is in itself a controversy, as the players’ union had urged the commission to appoint a neutral party.

All this drama is being played out in public while sports books such as Johnny Avello, executive director of race and sports operations at Wynn Las Vegas, are busy adjusting lines and watching this like a Shakespearean play. Avello said after the news came out on the lengthy suspension, he made adjustments to who wins Super Bowl, dropping the odds for the Patriots from 7-1 to 9-1.

Johnny Avello Horizontal 2 4Mg

“I was giving the odds at 5-2 to win the AFC conference and now it’s 4-1,” Avello added. “The reason is if they miss him for four games, the other teams could get possible jumps. Miami, Jets, Buffalo all have been lowered a bit…if it is two games, I’ll back off a little bit, maybe go to 8-1.”
The opening game is Pittsburgh and without Brady Avello says its a pick ’em game. The second game at Buffalo will be “difficult.” Jacksonville is up next and at home and he gives the Pats a win there, but the fourth game (after the bye week) is a tough game with Dallas.
“They could be 2-2 after four games if he’s not around, Avello said. “The Super Bowl champs get a tougher schedule.”
He also believes the Pats will not look for another quarterback.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Vaccaro, head of South Point Casino’s Race and Sports Marketing division, said the point spread for the Patriots-Steelers opener dropped to 1.5 from six points once the suspension was announced.
“Brady can move a game about six points. But with lots of time to prepare, and you adjust for the Superbowl win, we move it up a tick, Vaccaro said. “As for the rest of the division…the Jets, Bills and Miami, they are all about even. So now if you put the four games without Brady, the division up for grabs. We are just waiting an seeing how many games this suspension will be.”

Jimmy Vaccaro

Jimmy Vaccaro

Bookmakers in general had the Patriots to win 10.5 games prior to the suspension but now lowered to 10 games on the over/under.
”You have to remember that Tom Brady is the top quarterback in the league, but you can’t throw away the rest of the team. It is still a Superbowl winning team.”

Jay Kornegay, vice president of race and sports operations at Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino, said originally there was not much of an adjustment planned as nothing in the investigation suggested a four-game suspension was likely.

Jay Kornegay

Jay Kornegay

“We were thinking a fine and a one-game suspension,” said Kornegay, a lifelong Broncos fan and Colorado self-professed “homer.” “And a one-game suspension would make minor adjustments.”
Once The Wells report came out, Kornegay took the opening game against the Steelers off the board, where the Pats had been a six-point favorite.
“Once they announced four games, it was chaos for day and we had to make adjustments,” he said.
Additional fallout included raising the Super Bowl champs’ odds for a repeat to 8-1 from 7-1 after the suspension was announced. They also simultaneously changed the Denver Broncos line to 12-1 from 14-1 on the news.
The odds of the Pats winning the AFC conference was raised to 7-2 from 3-1, as well.
Oddsmakers explained the reason for the relatively minor adjustments was because they knew Brady would appeal and there’s a good chance the suspension would be reduced.

“These numbers are based on a two-game reduction already factored into this line,” Kornegay said, adding the line would be adjusted again if the four games are upheld.
Though initially Westgate took the Patriots-Steelers game off the board, it is now back on with the Patriots a two-point favorite. Why?
“They’ve done this before with Matt Cassel (2008 season when Brady got injured in the opener and was out all season) and won about 10 or 11 games (11 actually). They’ll be at home and they’ll be a lot of emotion there.”
He also thinks Coach Bill Belichick will come out blazing with something to prove.

Now, let’s see what the line is on that bet.

 

Tom Brady suspended four games, Patriots fined $1m over ‘DeflateGate’

The National Football League has suspended New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for his role in the ‘DeflateGate’ scandal.

On Monday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell banned Brady for the first four games of the upcoming season, citing “conduct detrimental to the integrity of the NFL.” Brady stood accused of a conspiracy to deflate footballs to below the 12.5 pounds per square inch minimum imposed by the NFL because Brady prefers throwing a softer ball, particularly in wet weather.

While Brady can continue to practice with the team and take part in preseason games, he will miss the season opener against the Steelers plus games against the Bills, Jaguars and Cowboys. Brady’s first game back will be against the Colts in Indianapolis on Oct. 18.

The NFL also fined Brady’s New England Patriots $1m and confiscated two draft picks – next year’s first rounder and a fourth-rounder in 2017. The fine matches the $1m leveled against 49ers owner Ed DeBartolo Jr. after he pled guilty to a felony charge for his role in a Louisiana riverboat casino license scandal. Pats coach Bill Belichick was fined $500k in 2007 for videotaping other teams’ defensive signals and the team forfeited a first-round draft pick.

NFL to suspend Brady for undetermined period over ‘DeflateGate’ scandal

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is facing suspension by the National Football League as punishment for his role in the ‘DeflateGate’ scandal, according to media reports.

On Friday, the New York Daily News reported that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell plans to announce Brady’s penalty this coming week. Sources told the paper that Goodell was left with little choice following the NFL’s investigation of allegations that Patriots staffers deliberately deflated game balls to below league-mandated minimums to suit Brady’s preferences.

This past week saw the release of the Wells Report, which concluded that it was “more probable than not that New England Patriots personnel participated in violations of the Playing Rules and were involved in a deliberate effort to circumvent the rules.”

Despite Brady’s refusal to provide investigator Ted Wells with his emails, texts or phone records, Wells concluded that Brady was “generally aware” of the actions of the two staffers and that Brady’s protestations to the contrary were “implausible.”

Beats and Burger King Steal the Show on An Amazing Sports Weekend

By Joe Favorito @Joefav @TheDailyPayoff

The first few days of May brought its share of interesting sports stories, from boxing to horses and plenty in between.
However from a sports business perspective, two surprising pops certainly deserved recognition for their ingenuity and creativeness.

Starting with the banning of journalists not just from the Pacquiao -Mayweather fight but from the PGA Tour (Stephanie Wei), the weekend included Yankee Alex Rodriguez tying Willie Mays’ homerun and the firestorm of recognition or non-recognition the Yankees will use, a new Kentucky Derby Champion, and amazing endings in the NBA and NHL Playoffs.

But on the business side of things, some thoughts to mull over.

Beats Beats The League Sponsor: A growing phenomenon with the NFL Draft (and it will be interesting to see if it also happens with the NBA Draft) is the issue of the top picks choosing to control their own ceremony and avoid showing up when their name is called on Draft Day. Once an honored rite of passage, top players have chosen to stay away and do their own controlled celebrating remotely, with this year both Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota deciding to forego the traditional handoff of the jersey and avoid all the trappings of Chicago for locales of their own.

Now while that may seem to be unique for the draftees, it creates an environment for ambush marketing that is almost unparalleled, and Beats By Dre certainly took advantage of not one, but three top draft picks (still unsigned and not beholden to league rules with regard to sponsorship at official events) being able to sport their gear.

Mariota released a Beats by Dre commercial hours before the draft, but topped that by sporting his own headphones live on national TV during his official call from the Tennessee Titans. Meanwhile ,Winston held a pair of red Beats when picked by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and fourth pick Amari Cooper did the same during his selection money shot.

While there is little the league can do other than find new and innovative ways to appease league sponsors like Bose with added value down the line, the remote announcement of top stars could lead to a whole new issue with brand piracy and augmentation as more players chose to avoid the official celebration at Draft and carve their own identity from a remote location.

Beats again scored big and beat the system on Draft Night like they had done in previous year’s pre-Bose with Richard Sherman, Colin Kaepernick and with the London Olympics. Other ambush brands take note.

Floyd and The King: All the hype that went into Pacquiao-Mayweather I (any doubt there will be a II or even a III?) became a great deal of white noise as the bout finally came around, as commentators ran out of pre-fight stories and behind the scenes looks hours before the two superstars entered the ring in Las Vegas. So as the cameras turned to the fight entrances, speculation started swirling on who would end up in whose entourage on the way to the ring. From Kimmel to Bieber, the unique and the bizarre found their way into the lens, and then suddenly there he was, the most bizarre of all, The Burger King.

It wasn’t some legendary fighter of the past, it was the costumed, somewhat strange looking image of the massive burger chain character himself, suddenly popping up before millions, just behind Floyd Mayweather as he made his way in. Then in a flash, he was gone.

Now there certainly wasn’t any shortage of brands that looked to make their way into and on the shorts, the trainers clothes, and the ring for the fight, all battling NASCAR-like for the right positioning as the fighters made their way into view for the pay-per-view and the global audience. But The Burger King? On a day when YUM Brands and its chains were front and center with their Kentucky Derby Sponsorship, Burger King (assuming it was a paid sponsorship and not some bizarre coincidence) suddenly stole the social world in the minutes leading up to the fight, something which is next to impossible to do in such a controlled atmosphere for an event that was not even on commercial or traditional broadcast television.

What made it even more unique was there was no real own up on behalf of BK corporate or its agency Scout Sports and Entertainment, part of Horizon Media (which is rumored to have brokered the guerilla-like appearance on behalf of their client) as of Sunday night.

Was it a one off? Is the King going to pop up in other unique locales as part of a new and fun rebrand for the chain? How much was invested and what was the timing? Who was in the suit? All of which will probably be answered in the coming days, but for timing, buzz and uniqueness, the Burger King insertion may have been the best, and most unique, scene stealer from a day of amazing events in sports business.

Now neither of these two brand enhancements happened in a vacuum for sure. They were well thought out, well timed and professionally done. While many brands try to make things “happen,” great execution takes time, money and forethought, and for those reasons beats By Dre and Burger King owned the day at their respective times, and certainly set the stage for who or what can come along next when the eyes of the world turn to athletes and big events in the coming weeks.

Preakness, NHL Finals, The Players Championship, you are up next.

FanDuel gets name on Mayweather’s trunks, seeks 16th NFL team deal

Daily fantasy sports operator FanDuel has purchased branding rights on boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s trunks for his fight against Manny Pacquiao on May 2.

On Thursday, EPSN reported that FanDuel had purchased the rights to have its name on the belt line of Mayweather’s trunks. FanDuel didn’t disclose how much it paid to get that close to Floyd’s crotch but the deal comes with six tickets to the fight, valued at $10k apiece, that will be given away in pairs to the winners of three upcoming fantasy contents. The winners of these contests will also receive free hotel, airfare and a meet-and-greet with Floyd himself.

FanDuel hasn’t been shy about spending its investors’ capital on pricey sports tie-ups. This week the company announced it had pushed the number of mutli-year sponsorship agreements it has reached with National Football League teams to 15 and another deal with the Chicago Bears is in the works. FanDuel’s rival DraftKings has a comparatively paltry three NFL deals.

However, the NFL’s vehemently anti-betting stance means FanDuel’s deals don’t come with the visibility FanDuel would have preferred. While FanDuel will enjoy stadium signage, radio and digital advertising, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told USA Today that FanDuel’s deals are similar to deals teams have struck with casinos – no NFL team logos or adverts on FanDuel’s website and FanDuel can’t identify itself as an ‘official’ team or league sponsor.

Sportradar signs partnership with NFL; Betclic inks with French basketball

Sportradar US has secured a multi-year partnership with the National Football League, paving the way for the sports data and content provider to become the exclusive distributor of NFL statistics to digital outlets. The deal is set to begin in the 2015 NFL season.

Sportradar’s responsibilities will include supplying official real-time scores, player statistics and play-by-play data. Likewise, Sportradar will also distribute the NFL’s new Next Gen Stats tracking system. The advanced, real-time analytical data provided by Next Gen Stats includes measurements like speed, acceleration and distance travelled for all players.

“Next Gen Stats is an exciting initiative that adds tremendous breadth and depth to our sport, NFL Vice President of Media Strategy and Business Development Vishal Shah said in a statement. “ The ability to partner with Sportradar US, with its focus on technology and high quality data distribution, enables the NFL to bring these great experiences to the rapidly growing sports data market and our fans.”

The deal with the NFL also gives Sportradar US a tremendous platform to showcase its capabilities since the football league is widely considered as the most popular sports league in the US. “This deal is an important milestone for our company and in particular underlines our commitment to securing a leading position in the US sports data market,” Sportradar US president Ulrich Harmuth said. “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.”

iGaming North America 2015 Day Three Recap

The third day of iGaming North America was a successful one, especially considering it was the last day of a three day stretch in Las Vegas.  Two good moves by the organizers were the addition of the iGaming North America Awards during lunch and holding a legalization of sports betting panel at the tail end of the event, both keeping a decent number of attendees on site (and out of the casinos).

When reflecting on the three days here in Vegas, what’s clear is Fantasy Sports is an incredibly hot topic in our industry today.  Jason Robins had an entourage of people following him after his session on Day 1 and today’s Fantasy Sports session enjoyed a full house despite its early hour.

The panel, “Expectations for the Maturing Fantasy Sports Industry” featured Paul Charchian, President of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA), a professional who has been involved in the fantasy sports industry for twenty years.

Charchian confirmed the explosive growth in Fantasy has a lot to do with the birth of Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) thanks to industry giants Draft Kings and FanDuel.  “ESPN’s most hit area of the site is fantasy football”, pointed out Charchian.

IS NFL EYEING LEGALIZED GAMBLING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC?

 

Is the NFL inching closer to joining the NBA in the push for legalized sports wagering? Depends on whom you talk to.

Late last week commissioner Roger Goodell announced that teams will be allowed to do one-year pay fantasy deals for the 2015 season, all of which will be subject to review after the season. While not a huge value proposition for the long-term yet, it does open a door that had been closed for a much-needed new revenue stream for teams.

Only a few teams have inked deals so far of some sort with fantasy outfits. The Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots, each inked deals last fall with Draft Kings. Most most other clubs still deferring on what and how the decision will be made.

Patrick Smyth of the Broncos public relations office, said the team signed on with Draft Kings, one of the two big players in the Fantasy arena, last fall for good reason.

“The decision to become involved with fantasy sports provided an opportunity for us to engage and connect with our fans through a new and growing avenue,” Smyth said. “we moved forward with our partnership after consulting with the league office.”

At the time of the signing, the team explained that daily games and contests were the next frontier for fantasy sports, and that this would be another way for fans to engage with the sport and the team they love. The Patriots expressed similar reasons for being the first team in the NFL to partner with a fantasy operation.

According to a story last fall in the Boston Globe, the Patriots said then “many of our fans in the stadium are playing daily fantasy sports, and we want to provide them with the most up-to-date information.” http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/10/16/draftkings/5E2bKV1bzN2103jl1lg7BO/story.html

Calls to a dozen NFL teams seeking comment about their status with fantasy sports were mostly unreturned. Two said they had no comment at this time.

The New York Giants’ Pat Hanlon did say while the team had no comment at this point, ” It’s a matter we will be discussing internally once we have all the details of what is allowable.”

Another more intriguing issue is if the NFL and other leagues like the NBA, who play games in markets like London where legal gaming is allowed, will take a big step in 2015 and license an official local betting partner. With the NFL now holding regular season games and promoting more to a global audience, a natural next step could be to pull in dollars, legal dollars, in places where the games are played.

Speaking at the Sportel Conference in Miami two weeks ago, NFL EVP of International Mark Waller was somewhat evasive and very cautious on the subject.

“Right now we are looking at all options as we should as a business, but to say the NFL will license gambling or create a partnership anywhere with a legal bookmaker is not on the table,” he said. There have been rumors that both the NFL and the NBA would sign deals this coming summer, creating a new revenue stream and again testing the waters for what legal dollars good flow in from legalized sports gambling, but right now both leagues have been relatively silent on the matter.

If the leagues were to sign deals to license their marks, it would raise an intriguing question for a state like Nevada, which currently does not have any of the four professional sports playing in the state, but is pushing hard to add the NHL with a new arena.

In year’s past, when teams like the Los Angeles Lakers played regular season games in Las Vegas, sports books would not take legal bets on the games. Now in a changing landscape, a move to have a legal betting partner abroad could open the door for a legal Nevada partner by the leagues, especially for the NHL, in advance of any federal law change to allow sports betting across the board. A host of other states continue to challenge the Federal law on sports gambling, but as of now Nevada remains the only place in the US where sports betting is legal and regulated.

Quietly some of the worlds largest betting houses have set up operations in the United States and continue to monitor the activity with regard to sports betting and pay fantasy while staying engaged in legal betting operations in sports like horse racing and poker.

Casinos are also looking for the added bump sports gambling could bring as a way to enhance team partnerships that have been in place for years as well. Is the NFL’s cautious toe in the water with pay fantasy a next step in taking the public temperature for legalized gambling and will their overseas games open other doors? Right now most are silent, but it will remain a key story to watch for when the pads go back on later this spring across America.

The issue of teams signing deals with fantasy companies came alive again last week when Daniel Kaplan of The Sports Business  Journal wrote that the league was making it clear to teams they could ink one-year deals.

Kaplan wrote that the league told teams they could sign daily fantasy deals during the league’s annual meeting in Arizona.

The league said it wanted to formalize its position because it did not have a policy in that category.

Kaplan quoted an email by Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s VP/Communications, saying, “With more teams signing advertising deals last year the league reviewed the overall landscape and made a proposal to enable all clubs to explore potential arrangements. It would be for one year.”

  

Frank Scandale @Fscandale contributed to this report.

FanDuel wins legal battle with DraftKings; NFL imposes rule on fantasy sports ads

National Advertising Division (NAD) has recommended that DraftKings stop its claim of being the largest US-based fantasy sports site as the company regularly does.

The two biggest daily fantasy sports sites have locked horns on who has claims of being the “largest US-based” fantasy sports website and FanDuel, which filed the complaint, is in the right in this particular instance.

FanDuel claimed that its rival is engaging in false advertising because it promotes itself as the “largest U.S.-based destination for daily fantasy sports” is invalid.

For its part, DraftKings is arguing that it hasn’t made claims of being larger than FanDuel, conceding that its rival does have more users and offers larger guaranteed prize pools. It instead bases its claim on its belief that FanDuel isn’t a US-based company as it traces its roots to Edinburgh, Scotland where FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles is based.

NFL Opens The Pay Fantasy Door For Teams

NFL Opens The Pay Fantasy Door For Teams
Joe Favorito @JoeFav



The end of this week’s NFL meetings in Arizona brought about what could be seen as a big crack in the armor for pay gaming and the gridiron. According to Dan Kaplan of Sports Business Journal, the league will allow daily fantasy deals for one year, formalizing a policy that has been more restrictive than the NHL and NBA and had forced several teams into a difficult situation when looking at new in-market revenue streams. The one year deals with companies like FanDuel and DraftKings will have a one year team opt out according to Kaplan, but will open a door that could be very lucrative for individual clubs, especially given the huge dollars that flow into fantasy football already every year. Which teams will formalize agreements now that the option is open remain to be seen, with one, the New England Patriots Jonathan Kraft’s Kraft Sports Group, having an equity stake in Boston-based Draft Kings.

The announcement in Arizona comes at a time when baseball, also with a small stake in fan Duel through MLB Advanced Media, should also be entering into the daily pay fantasy world more than ever before, although league sources say no deal is imminent as Opening Day comes into view this weekend. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said recently that he felt it was time to take a look at all forms of legal wagering as a revenue stream, echoing the statements that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has made in recent months as well.

The NFL meanwhile has been the most silent on any kind of pay fantasy or gambling talk, with its owners most concerned about the ill-will that could be fostered from gambling talk, especially coming off a recent period of negative publicity that has damaged the NFL shield, but not its coffers. Whether one year deals will reap a windfall for fantasy businesses who choose to align themselves with teams remains to be seen, but the amount of money spent in marketing to NFL fans through broadcast and digital buys by the two biggest players in the market was at record levels in the tens of millions last year. Official designations with teams would allow any company to use the marks of their respective partner and could open up digital and in-stadium activation, but without a longer play the company runs a big risk of losing equity should the league change its stance, or create a league-wide partnership beyond 2016.

Regardless, the openness to accept pay fantasy partners is a signal of an acceptance trend that seems to be a long time in coming, and could be yet another escalation in a business, pay fantasy and legalized gambling, which many experts say could be a billion dollar industry within five years

NFL Free Agency Super Bowl 50 Odds

There are a handful of words you can use to describe the first few days of the NFL’s free agency period. The word “frenzy” has been thrown around. Same with “carousel”. Other words that have been uttered in the past few days include “fever”, “madness”, and “hysteria”. All these words are apt to describe what’s been going on in the NFL with so many players getting traded, signing with other teams, and even retiring.

More than anybody else, sportsbooks took notice of all the moves being made in the free agency period. The kind of had to because all the player movement was having direct effects on the Super Bowl 50 betting market. Take the Seattle Seahawks for example. Before free agency began, the Seahawks were second favorites to win Super Bowl 50 at 7/1 odds. The only team with shorter odds were the reigning Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots at 11/2 odds.

Then Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis announced that he was returning to the New York Jets. Shortly after that, the Seahawks swing a blockbuster deal with the New Orleans Saints that sent Pro Bowl tight end Jimmy Graham to the northwest. Once news arrived of these two stunning transactions, the Seahawks saw their odds drop to 5/1 with the Patriots going up to 6/1.

Think this only applies to the favorites? Guess again.

PERSONALITY CORNER: Tim Rooney Sr.

PERSONALITY CORNER: Tim Rooney Sr.

By Frank Scandale@FScandale

 

Age: 76

Title: President of Yonkers Racing Corp and Empire City Casino.

Former Life: Part owner in the Pittsburgh Steelers

Duties: “Keep everyone in line and make sure expenses are under control.”

Favorite Sports Moment: “Very easily, when we won our first Super Bowl.”

Favorite Family Moment: “ Ha. Reviewing it, it has to be the same moment because of the family involvement. Unbelievable.”

Most Admired Person: Wellington Mara. I knew Cardinal (Terrance James) Cooke, but as a regular human being, Wel Mara was special.”

Favorite Golf Spot: Winged Foot Golf Club, Mamaroneck, NY.

ART ROONEY AND TIM ROONEY AT RACETRACK

Even a guy who used to co-own one of the best NFL teams in a city that saw its share of horrendous winters and can’t avoid talking about this winter’s hottest topic – the weather.

 

Relentless sub-freezing temps, snow and lingering ice have made 0 degrees the new 32 in the Northeast and its effects have not have escaped Tim Rooney Sr. and his operation at the Yonkers Raceway Corp. which also operates the Empire City Casino in the shadow of New York City.

 

This became the second consecutive winter when the region took it on the chin.

 

“Last year, the first quarter hurt dramatically against the same quarter in 2013. When the weather hit, we were down, but we came back up at the end of the year.  January (2015) started off fairly strong, but then the bad weather even supplanted the weather from the last year!” Rooney laughed. “We came back again and were up every day until last Saturday when that 5 inches of snow hit us. We had the accounting department check how many days we had under 25 degrees or snow and we are double the number of bad days this year compared to last year.”

 

Weather is only one of the factors that determine how the casino and harness racing business will go for Rooney. The competition and proliferation of brick and mortar casinos and online betting made his days as a football team owner seem orderly.

 

 

In a wide-ranging interview, the gregarious Rooney touched on football, gaming, horse racing, online gambling, his family and golf.

 

The Rooney name has been synonymous with professional football since 1933 when Art Rooney Sr. founded the Pittsburg Steelers for  $2,500. Tim and two of his four brothers were forced to sell their shares in 2009 in the team because the National Football League’s concerns about the family’s other business interests in gambling entities. The move was painful for Rooney for many reasons, not the least of which is passion for the pigskin despite his love for horses.

 

“Well, there is no comparison. My father was in the business (racing) his whole life, but football is football.

 

He likes to say his favorite sports moment was the first time the Steelers won a Super Bowl, Super Bowl IX in 1975. “Nothing possibly comes close. They were all good (wins) but there is no emotion ever having equaled that first one.”

 

When pressed about his favorite family moment – he has five children and 19 grandchildren – he laughs and hesitates, saying, “I probably shouldn’t say this, but it might be the same moment because of the family’s unbelievable moment (together)…winning the Super Bowl was unbelievable.”

 

 

So much has changed now with respect to sports and gambling, but Rooney wishes the NFL then had allowed them to hold their shares.

 

“When we were closing in on the sale, I honestly did not want to sell my stock in the Steelers. My father had done this (racing) long before this and we had been running the team in this manner,” he continued. “On the other side, my brothers who stayed in will be a lot wealthier, especially when Buffalo sold for $1.4 billion.”

 

Despite his love of football, he says he does not attend games anymore. Too easy to stay home and watch it on television, he says. He used to fly to Pittsburgh on Saturday, have dinner with his brothers that night, go to the game and fly home on Sunday night.

 

Today, his focus is on Yonkers and Empire with his son Tim Jr. and son-in-law Bob Galterio. With casinos popping up all around the Northeast and siphoning off potential and former customers, Rooney says the trick is to keep reinventing and innovating. Rooney, in fact, hinted that Empire would unveil something new soon along with a strong advertising campaign.

 

“We’re going to try out some new things this year, a little more refreshing,” Rooney, now 76, said. “We have a new ad campaign coming out at the end of February or so. It’s more of a return to a stronger campaign on TV.”

 

The table games at fully licensed casinos has been a draw for some players, he said, but New York State’s upcoming budget has a provision for Empire to receive a higher quality electronic table game, something Rooney insists will level the playing field somewhat. The legislature still has to approve it, but he is optimistic that will happen.

 

“Our facility is very good. We just opened another restaurant and put a lot of money into our food business. Two of the three restaurants are doing very well. But the biggest thing we have coming is that part of Governor Cuomo’s budget is to give us a higher quality of electronic table games, one of which is blackjack. “

 

That looming boost and the weather’s inevitable improvement has Rooney eyeing a 5 percent improvement in 2015. “I think we will be up a couple of million dollars this year.”

 

 

 

The real issue down the road is becoming a fully licensed casino when New York State allows those businesses in the metro region to apply. Under the state’s gaming law, New York City and its surround suburbs, including Yonkers, are prohibited from receiving any casino licenses for at least seven years, according to a story in the New York Daily News last December.

 

“We’d be looking to get one of those new licenses,” Rooney said.” Basically if we had a license now, we could open immediately.”

That would complement Rooney’s operation that features approximately 6,000 electronic machines now. “For us not to get a license would be hard to imagine.”

 

For now, the only non-tribal casino licenses will be located further upstate, which Rooney believes will not impact business.

 

The other big issue looming on the horizon is online gambling and sports, a mounting issue as prominent figures such as current NBA commissioner Adam Silver and his predecessor David Stern call for legalized sports betting outside of Nevada.

 

For Rooney, it’s a complicated issue, while he knows there is so much betting now in sports. According to the American Gaming Association, the estimated amount bet illegally on the recent Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl game was said to be approximately $3.8 billion, compared to approximately $100 million bet legally.

 

“The only question I have for it and somebody smarter than me can figure it out is when a guy makes an unbelievable catch in the game and then later on an important third down drops the ball, everybody is suspicious of everything that happens. Is somebody going to ask if he dropped it on purpose?

 

He recalls the days at the track when people were betting heavy on sporting events at the pay phones, back before cell phones existed. “If you go out and see the pay phone lines, all I can tell you is that they are not calling home to find out what’s the wife is making for dinner.”

 

Today, the game is more interesting and exciting for a wider ranger of people.
“If say Denver is playing Seattle and you don’t have an interest in either team, I don’t care who wins the game, but people watch them because they are betting on the game. That is really part of the popularity of the game.”

 

When the snow finally melts in the East, you’ll likely find Rooney relaxing on a golf course, one of his favorite other sports. The mere mention of golf gets him going about Tiger Woods, the stalled champion nursing injuries and a bruised mental game.

 

“Tiger Woods. When you looked at his position, the only other guy who dominated a sport like Tiger was maybe Michael Jordan. Not Bradshaw. Not Manning. None of them was a dominating in their sport as Woods.”

 

He recalled how small the purses were in comparison to today’s average first-place prize money being way north of $1 million, and cited his family’s own tournament, The Philadelphia Golf Classic back in the 1960s.

 

“We had this match, we owned it, sold the tickets, everything. The purse total was $150,000. That was tied for the biggest purse on tour at that point,” he explained. “In our tournament we got lucky. (Jack) Nicklaus and (Arnold) Palmer tied and went into a playoff. It’s the only thing that got us to break even.”

 

 

 

STATS LLC launches daily fantasy sports data projections

Global sports statistics and information company STATS LLC has just announced a new product that could potentially be a boon to  players. Beginning this year – first in baseball before branching out into other sports – STATS will now have the capability to offer daily fantasy tools to its users and roster of media clients, creating a system by which the fantasy value of players can be tracked, opening up valuable information on which players offer value in daily fantasy sports leagues.

In line with this new tool, STATS will be offering projections directly tied into the scoring systems of both FanDuel and DraftKings, regarded as two of the biggest providers of daily fantasy sports games in North America.

“Broadcast, digital and print media are all focused on the explosion of daily fantasy sports and need content to support their audience,” STATS executive vice president of Pro Analytics Bill Squadron said in a statement.

Baseball will be the first sport to be covered under this new tool. It’s great timing considering that the upcoming Major League Baseball season kicks off next month. But it won’t be the only one. As STATS gets its feet comfortably planted on the ground with this tool, the company is expected to roll out similar daily fantasy projections for the NFL, the NBA, and the NHL, as well as other sports like soccer and college football and basketball.

STATS’ acquisition of Bloomberg Sports in September 2014 allowed the company to utilize the technology offered by Bloomberg to create a standard in predictive analysis through the integration of data-driven models centered on player and team performance. “We’ve combined Bloomberg Sports technology and analytics with STATS’ rich content and powerful data engines to provide the most accurate daily player projections to our customers,” Squadron added.

The content of STATS’ new daily fantasy sports projections will be made available through custom feed data or APIs, ensuring that players can have easy access to all the important information needed for them to build the best possible fantasy lineup in either FanDuel or DraftKings.

At the very least, you can expect this new offering from STATS will become a critical tool for a lot of daily fantasy sports players moving forward.

Tropicana revenue gains; Borgata eyeing expansion; AC to host Arena Football

The Tropicana Casino & Resort Atlantic City has posted an impressive 24% improvement in net revenue in 2014.

According to the company’s annual reports to investors, net revenue in 2014 reached $303.08 million, a steady improvement from the $244.7 million it earned in 2013, largely tributed to an increase in gambling revenue amounting to $55.2 million.

Tropicana’s operating profits posted small gains, amounting to $12.4 million in 2014 compared to $11.19 million in 2013. The property tax refund from Atlantic City with $31.7 million helped the Tropicana, giving owner Carl Icahn some measure of relief after five casinos in Atlantic City shuttered their windows last year. One of them, the Trump Taj Mahal, is expected to be added to Icahn’s portfolio, at least depending on the outcome of bankruptcy court proceedings currently underway for the property.

Meanwhile, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa—another one of Atlantic City’s casinos that are still standing—has announced plans to expand its business, including the development of an outdoor entertainment venue to host concerts and festivals and a new, state-of-the-art nightclub.

Plans for this expansion have now been set into motion after the casino operator received preliminary determination of eligibility from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) to use around $14 million of its “current and future funds on deposit with the CRDA generated from its Investment Alternative Tax payments.”

Part of this investment will go in the development and construction of the Borgata Festival Park and the new nightclub.

“We are thrilled with the opportunity to enhance and grow our already tremendous entertainment offerings through funding by the CRDA and a wonderful partnership with Live Nation,” Borgata President and CEO Tom Ballance said in a statement. “Upon our entry into the market in 2003, Borgata set the bar for entertainment and nightlife in Atlantic City, so it is only appropriate that we raise it yet again with the addition of these two substantial projects.”