Category Archives: Featured

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.

When Fantasy Became An Obsession

By TERRY LYONS @terrylyons Contributing Columnist for @TheDailyPayoff

It started with the very best of intentions.
But as with so many major (or minor) vices in life, it quickly grew into an obsession. The weekly NFL Fantasy League, a competition involving a bunch of writers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and a few PR gurus in Dallas, LA and New York, morphed into a full-blown NBA Fantasy Sports League.

The year was 1983 and in a Boston Globe column, Celtics forward Larry Bird casually described the way he determined how impactful every player’s statistics were on a nightly basis as he tried to figure out a way to compete against his nemesis Earvin “Magic” Johnson despite the fact they only saw each other twice a season. Bird added the “positive” stats – points, rebounds, assists, blocked shots and steals then subtracted the “negative” stats – missed field goals and free throws, turnovers and personal fouls.

Little did he know at the time, but Bird had created the best possible formula for an NBA fantasy sports game. At a later date, it was determined that some personal fouls might actually be a “positive” occurrence, so that stat was banished from the equation and “The Larry Bird League” was officially created.

To protect his innocence, I will leave-out the name of the commissioner and mastermind of the Larry Bird League, but suffice to say, he was (and still is) one of the best writer-reporters the NBA beat has ever seen. He went to the lengths of actually having Larry Bird draw the order of the league draft nearly every year, usually at an NBA preseason tilt in Hartford, CT or Springfield, MA. In one instance, maybe in 1986 or ’87, while the Larry Bird League commissioner was busy conducting the annual draft while covering games on the east coast, one of the Bird League franchise owners was at The Fabulous Forum in LA, covering Magic Johnson and the LA Lakers.

That rival Bird League team owner met-up with the one and only Magic Johnson for a pregame interview, some 12-24 hours after that year’s fantasy draft had been conducted, and he explained the situation to the Magic Man.

“I got you with the fifth overall pick,” he told Johnson.

“Fifth?” Magic questioned, his competitive instincts surfacing.

The writer had to explain that in the Bird League you had to fill out a line-up based by position, and the top centers were a hot commodity and were often first-round picks. centers like Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing were always gobbled-up early.

“Oh, okay,” said Magic, still not quite understanding the concept of fantasy sports.

Then, as only Magic Johnson could put it, complete with that friendly smile, “So? Who we got?”

That was the end of innocence in our world of fantasy sports.

Fast-forward to the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, the year the one and only USA Basketball Dream Team was to prove they were the best team ever assembled in any sport. Ever.

One or two nights before the opening ceremonies were to take place, the esteemed commissioner of the Larry Bird League, on assignment to cover the Olympic Games, had managed a feat almost as difficult to obtain as a gold medal in the Decathlon. The commish obtained admission into one of the most secure locales on the planet, outside of the Situation Room in The White House. He was in the lobby of the Hotel Ambassador, just a few steps off the Ramblas in Barcelona. It was the hotel headquarters for the Dream Team.

It was early in the evening and the order of the draft needed to be determined because the actual draft would be taking place only hours later at 7 Portes seafood restaurant in Barcelona. Not all the regulars of the usual NBA Bird League were on hand, but a few others eagerly snapped up the expansion franchises, because we needed all fantasy team owners to be on hand for a live draft to be conducted over dinner, on – probably – the last night of the Olympics we’d actually have a decent dinner, aside from fast food gorging or a press room “Jamon and cheese.”

The lobby of the Dream Team hotel in Barcelona was pretty small, as the Hotel Ambassador was designed to be a small, commuter hotel, not much different than a Marriott Courtyard or Holiday Inn Express. The rooms were rather small and the lobby bar had only six or eight chairs. On the night of our draft, Bird sat at one of them, on the far right side, chatting with a few of his buddies who accompanied him on the trip. They were going to take in an Olympic baseball game and bird had a USA Basketball hat on, as he always did.

I had my back to Bird and we were excitedly planning for the upcoming draft, gathering all team rosters and making sets so each franchise owner would be able to draft later that night. Of course, we were also strategizing a bit, noting that the USA players, many who would only play 15-20 minutes per night, might go in the second or third round.

Suffice to say we were totally ignoring Bird and his small entourage and we thought he was ignoring us.

The commissioner of our league had scribbled out the numbers – 1-through-8 – on little pieces of paper and he crumpled them up into tiny pieces.

Now, the important part!

Not a single word was said.

I turned around, pivoting, so-to-say, on the great Larry Bird, who proceeded to remove his cap and hold it out as he rolled his eyes and shook his head just slightly.

The Bird Commissioner reached over, past me, and tossed the tiny papers into the baseball hat. Bird handed me the cap and I raised it as high as I could so Larry had to reach up to pick the papers – one at a time – out of the cap, thus determining the order of our draft.

Upon Bird selecting the seventh team, I brought the cap down to eye level and we all observed the one piece of paper left in the cap.

I grabbed the paper, unfurling it as I did, and Bird promptly placed the cap back where it belonged – on his scruffy, blond locks.

We went back to our business and Larry returned to his cold cervaza San Miguel on the bar and continued his conversation with his two friends.

Bird knew the routine.

Now, the reason for that interesting intro is simple. Our basic fantasy NFL league had become the prototype for an NBA fantasy sports game and that morphed into the Olympic Games basketball version where Puerto Rico’s leading scorer Jose Ortiz or Australia’s Andrew Gaze were pure gold, in fantasy terms. Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt, now a Hall of Famer, was another fantasy juggernaut and so was the late Drazen Petrovic or his Croatian teammate Tony Kukoc, although Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen shut Kukoc down mightily in the two games against the USA. Charles Barkley of the USA was the most valuable American player, as he led the team in scoring and I remember being happy with “a couple top Argentines” drafted in the middle rounds.

Fast-forward two years to the 1994 World Championship of Basketball, held in Toronto, and one of our colleagues, who had attended the 1990 World Championship and ’92 Olympics and had a keen fantasy mind, drafted Richard Matienzo, the top Cuban player in our “WCOB” Bird League. Matienzo was Cuba’s leading scorer and rebounder, but he failed to show up to the team’s August 11, 1994, game against Germany. He had defected.

“He left the hotel Wednesday night with his friends but he hasn’t come back,” said Cuba’s head coach Miguel Calderon Gomez to The New York Times, refusing to speculate as to the whereabouts of his player.

In the cold, cruel world of fantasy, where the previously productive player would now be getting giant goose-eggs on a nightly basis, we applied the “Doug Moe Rule,” which quite simply was “Tough Shit.”

With the foundation laid solidly, our group expanded our fantasy borders to all types of competition. If it worked for the NFL, the NBA and the Olympics, it surely worked for NBA Summer League, correct?

Yes, some of the writers actually held a Midwest Rookie Revue Bird League one summer. And, that was not the most far-fetch fantasy league we conducted. There were impromptu leagues for ice hockey at the Nagano Olympics, there were team-based games for World Cup soccer, there were single night fantasy games for the annual NBA All-Star Game and The Finals. There were great Ryder Cup golf leagues, MLB All-Star leagues and Kentucky Derby Fantasy leagues. You name it, we did it.

The most ridiculous?

One winter night while attending a women’s corporate basketball game in Manhattan where some of the NBA Entertainment staffers were competing, and two of the longtime members of the Larry Bird League were in attendance, so we quickly scratched out the roster numbers of the players on the two teams.

Let’s just say, I remember I won because I had attended a few games before the Rec league game that night, scouting the players, of course. So, I can now confess, and thank star NBAE power forward-center Kathleen Reidy who always put up a double-double.

Gambling in the Sports Digital Space with Chris Russo

By Joe Favorito @JoeFav @TheDailyPayoff

As we enter perhaps the busiest sports gambling weekend in some time, there are few who understand the convergence of digital, fantasy and sport better than Chris Russo.
Russo has been ahead of the curve in his time at the NFL, in his time as the founder of what was Fantasy Sports Ventures and became The Big Lead, and now is back in the business with Fifth Generation Sports, a boutique agency with capabilities in marketing, research, digital and social media with access to investment capital that will again look to be ahead of the curve in the highly fluid and volatile world of sports and digital.

94AE3405CA33487F91B4EF5BFE56E370.ashxThe Daily Payoff caught up with Russo to ask him about his new venture, where the opportunities, and more importantly where the misconceptions are in the digital sports business.

TDP: You have been involved in a number of startups in sports and digital, what will your latest project now be doing?

CR: Fifth Generation Sports will be focusing on the business of sports and technology. We’ll provide a range of consulting and intelligence services. I’ve also completed a relationship with MESA Global, a boutique investment bank, and I’m excited about helping build a sports M&A practice at MESA.

TDP: Fantasy Sports ventures was ahead of the curve when it launched. Are you surprised with the way the business of pay fantasy has now exploded?

CR: I am not really surprised that pay fantasy has become a huge business. The leading companies in the space have done a great job with their products and marketing. Also, the fantasy business was becoming stale and needed some type of major innovation. Daily fantasy is the perfect formula because it brings in new audiences and also makes daily sports like basketball, baseball, and hockey attractive, while football continues to be very popular.

TDP: What is the key to success in any fantasy opportunity going forward?

CR: I believe that many new opportunities to be developed in the coming years will be tied to the daily fantasy ecosystem. I expect that there will be a number of new products and services that provide some type of value to the daily player. Also, products that best leverage mobile consumption will be more likely to succeed.

TDP: How important is mobile activation?

CR: Mobile is critically important to any digital sports property. In many cases, more than half of the digital usage is driven via mobile. Unfortunately, the monetization of mobile sports is lagging, as it is in other sectors, but I do believe that the dollars will ultimately follow the eyeballs.

TDP: Who are some of the people you follow in the business and why?

CR: I don’t necessarily follow specific people but keep an eye on areas of innovation in digital sports. There are many interesting developments in OTT (Over The Top) , for example. We’ve already discussed the amazing growth of daily fantasy. Also, there has been a lot of excitement in the youth and high school sports space.

TDP: The NFLt announced their long-awaited YouTube deal. How important is that partnership for the YouTube brand?

CR: YouTube brings an enormous audience, and I think it makes sense for the NFL and other sports leagues to leverage that platform for fan development purposes. While the audience has been there for many years, my sense is that the monetization opportunity for the leagues in this context, and in social media generally, is increasing, which is why we see renewed focus on these types of deals.

TDP: How important is it for a digital sports brand to be global? Is hyper-local content enough?

CR: I believe that being a global brand is important for many sports properties and businesses, but not necessarily for all. Digital gives virtually every sports property a low cost way of creating a global footprint, but making money overseas may only be viable in the short run for certain properties. Regarding local content, I think the most important trend is the creation of new software and publishing tools that enable the local sports entities to efficiently create their own content. This allows a bottom up approach to local sports vs. the top down approach was which used in the early days of the internet.

TDP: What’s the biggest misconception people have about the fantasy space?

CR: The biggest misconception is that it’s very easy to make a lot of money in fantasy sports. While it’s true that several of the companies are doing very well, the space is extremely competitive and there are many companies that need to work hard simply to keep afloat. While I would encourage new companies to pursue their fantasy sports initiatives, it’s not an easy road.

Chris Russo Bio:
Chris Russo is a recognized industry leader and innovator in digital sports media. Mr. Russo’s diverse experience in digital sports includes his tenure as head of digital media for the NFL, his entrepreneurial success as CEO of Big Lead Sports, and his current roles as President of consultancy Fifth Generation Sports, Senior Advisor at MESA Global and adjunct professor at NYU’s Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Business and Media. Highlights of his career include:
NFL
Mr. Russo served as Senior Vice President, New Media for the National Football League. In that role, he had broad P&L responsibility for the digital media business unit and oversaw all day-to-day operations, including content, advertising sales, marketing, and business development. He completed digital media transactions with total value in excess of $1 billion, including arrangements with Sprint, eBay, Yahoo, CBS Sports, AOL, and Sirius Radio. He launched the NFL’s first-ever fantasy football products and also played a critical role in the creation of the “NFL Internet Network” business model, aggregating NFL.com and 32 team sites into a unified property. Mr. Russo received the Sports Business Journal 40 under 40 Award for 3 consecutive years and is a member of the Sports Business Journal Hall of Fame.
Big Lead Sports (aka Fantasy Sports Ventures)
Mr. Russo served as Chairman and CEO of Big Lead Sports (aka Fantasy Sports Ventures), the largest independent online sports property in the U.S., reaching more than 20 million unique users and consistently ranking in the top 5 among all online sports properties. At Big Lead Sports, Mr. Russo aggregated 500+ sports sites via strategic acquisitions and business arrangements. He completed innovative ad programs with brands such as Coke, Sprint, Coors, and Gillette/P&G. Big Lead Sports was nominated for a “Best in Digital Media” award by the Sports Business Journal. In 2012, Mr. Russo sold the company to USA TODAY.
NYU
Mr. Russo currently serves as Adjunct Instructor for the Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Business and Media. In that role, he teaches NYU’s Digital Media course to graduate students. In 2013, Mr. Russo received the NYU Sports Business Society Media Award for career accomplishments.
Mr. Russo received his BA from Northwestern University and his MBA from Harvard University.

Derby Game Seeks to Give Away $1 million

By Frank Scandale @Fscandale @TheDailyPayoff

If you combine a little bit of skill with a paddock full of luck, you could be walking away with $1 million this weekend when the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby goes off.
At the very least, the creators and backers of this inaugural online event hope the casual horse racing fans become more attached to the sport as they try to grow the audience with a combination of betting and appreciation for the sport.
Walter Hessert, co-founder and chief product officer of DerbyGames, a social online horse racing game, said the odds are better to win if you pay even a little attention to the Kentucky Derby leading up to the race Saturday.
The goal is to pick each of the 20 horses in their exact order of finish to win the $1 million.

“The odds are long.  If you know nothing, a completely random entry is 1 in 20 factorial.  But, knowing just a little about the horses improves your odds a lot,” Hessert said.Those interested in participating in the Derby Million Dollar Challenge should go to www.derbymillion.com and rank the Derby horses in the correct order of finish to win the $1,000,000 grand prize.

Entry is free through Saturday, May 2 at 12 pm ET. Along with their rankings, contestants must provide their name, a valid email address and zip code. Contestants will be encouraged to share their entry with their friends using the hashtag #DerbyMillion and if the winner of the grand prize entered the sweepstakes through a friends referral link, then that friend wins $100,000 – so it “pays to share,’ Hessert said.

Hessert’s company partnered with America’s Best Racing, a multi-media fan development and awareness-building platform initiated by The Jockey Club,
in an effort to combine those with a love of the sport with those who enjoy wagering on the horses.
“It’s a fun way to digitally engage the audience for that Derby day,” he said. “Then we get to follow up with emails and develop more fans, which is the goal.”

Talking Sports, Media and Digital with Tom Richardson

Tom Richardson is the founder and president of a consulting outfit focused on the intersection of sports and media. He has worked in pro sports, taught college classes, lectured, consumed copious amounts of relevant and random information, is father to a pair of Millennials and a former English major.
Seemingly everywhere on the sports and media scene, Richardson exudes boundless energy, insatiable curiosity and unmitigated opinion about a wide range of subjects.
We asked Richardson about his involvement in all things sports, digital, and venture capital.

Your Preferred Titles: Founder and President, Convergence Sports & Media; Adjunct Professor


Duties: CEO/CMO/CRO/CTO — chief cook and bottle washer; teaching, mentoring


HomeTown: Massapequa, Long Island, NY

First Paid Job: Cutting lawns around the neighborhood ($3/lawn!) starting around age 12

Favorite Sport: Football

Favorite Team: Giants

Your most important Epiphany: Your reputation is your most important asset

Your Life Credo: Follow the golden rule

Twitter : @ConvergenceTR

 

Tom Richardson

TDP: Tell me about your company Covergence Sports & Media and how it integrates into the landscape of gaming

TR: Convergence, which I founded in 2004, is consulting and advisory business that works with a variety of companies, from well-established properties to start-up ventures, in sports, media and entertainment. The focus is on helping companies develop products and services profitably, to leverage assets in order maximize value and to compete more effectively in a converged media world. Working from time to time with gaming companies (e.g. early sage fantasy sports company, data provider), we’ll focus on business and strategic planning, digital marketing, business development, resourcing, etc.

TDP: How did you get involved with the NY Venture Community sports group, and what is its greatest asset these days?

TR: One of the founders, Jeff Volk, is a longtime sports industry colleague and friend of mine. I started helping out informally early on and gradually got more involved and became the first board member. The greatest asset is the knowledge that is shared and the camaraderie that is fostered at each live event. NYVC Sports has become a catalyst in broadening and energizing an already robust sports/investment/tech network in/around NY City.

TDP: Where do you see the biggest opportunities on the horizon regarding gambling, sports and technology?

TR: The rapid proliferation of tracking technologies is ushering in a bit of revolution in the area of sports data and team/player performance analytics. Examples include MLB’s Statcast, NBA’s SportVU and the things that the NFL are dong with Zebra Technologies. The output of all those initiatives could be the poster child of the “Big Data” movement. There’s an enormous amount of data that is being generated, much of which would be of great interest to gamers and gamblers. So I think the biggest opportunity is in the “productization” of all this data, finding B2B and B2C applications that will find a sustainable market.

TDP: Tell me how you first landed on the Digital side and had you any inkling it would grow so quickly and diversely as it did?

TR: I joined the NFL in the pre-Internet era but I knew about the early online business (companies like Prodigy and Compuserve) from my prior job at Ziff-Davis, the leading publisher of computer magazines. So I lived and managed through the transition while at the NFL, where we did the first online deal (w/ Prodigy) and the first CD-I and CD-ROM deals in pro sports. And that led to NFL.com. At that point I got a good sense of the potential and where things might go and I quickly became hooked on the digital side of the business. So I eventually moved to the NHL, where I was the GM of the league’s digital business.

TDP: How does the digital technology change the gambling , egaming and fantasy landscape? What are its limits?

TR: The immediate, real-time aspect of data capture and sharing is obviously making everything faster, which is a good thing for people who trade on or or make livings around data. Also, the world is now truly flat – it’s a global business where customers can come literally from all corners of the earth. That point, as well as the rapid growth of Over The Top video, is helping propel eSports into a huge, global sports business.

TDP: Tell me about your academia life and how it dovetails with the sports world?

TR: I’ve been teaching sports business (mostly digital media and marketing) for almost five years Columbia, NYU and Iona. It’s a labor of love for me for two reasons: 1) I love to learn, so keeping up with things, as good teachers should, comes naturally to me. I read a lot of articles and white papers, listen to a lot of podcasts and watch a lot of videos about the sports, media, entertainment, technology, start-ups, etc. That learning helps me stay fresh and enables me to put a complicated subject into the proper perspective for students; 2) I like to meet and interact with younger people — the millennial generation. As “digital natives,” they often have interesting insights and perspectives on this rapidly changing world and business environment. So while they learn form me, I also learn from them, which helps me as a consultant — I’m able to keep my finger on the pulse of the market.

TDP: How do you see Over The Top (OTT) content delivery changing the sports media, and by extension, fantasy and gaming landscape?

TR: OTT is a game changer for a few reasons: 1) Just about anyone can do it, so it’s great tool for “attacker brands” — those that are competing against the big incumbents; 2) There’s an immediate global reach, which means the potential audience can be found and engaged faster and cheaper than ever; 3) There’s interactivity as well as social elements that create like-minded communities around passions; eSports (and Twitch) is a great example; 4) There’s a high level of user tracking and measurement that allows for efficient and valuable targeted marketing and advertising.

TDP: Tell us something that very few people know about you.

TR: I spend a lot of time on/with music. I’m an avid self-taught guitar player (been hooked since age 15) and a self-taught hacker piano player. I’m also a big listener (in my office, on the train, walking around Manhattan) and lyric tweeter — on Twitter, @lyricbuff is my scrapbook of great lyrics worth remembering and sharing.

Kentucky Derby Top 10 Best Bets

By Jerry Bossert @jerrybossert for @TheDailyPayoff

The Kentucky Derby, the most exciting two minutes in sports, will be run this Saturday for the 141st time before an estimated crowd of 160,000 people at Churchill Downs and another 16 million watching on television. Nearly $130 million will be bet on the race and here’s a look at my top 10 contenders for the “Run for the Roses.”

Upstart – Born in New York, this colt has quickly risen up the Derby trail as he’s never finished off the board from seven starts, winning three times. His ability to lay close to pace and still have plenty left to kick home makes him dangerous. ODDS: 18-1.

Materiality – Has tons of ability winning all three of his career starts but has to overcome the curse of Apollo (1882), who remains the last horse never to start as a 2-year-old and win the Derby. ODDS: 12-1

Dortmund - One of the Top Favorites at Posttime

Dortmund – One of the Top Favorites at Posttime

Dortmund – He’s probably going to be the second-choice in the wagering, having not lost from six starts and he already owns a win at Churchill Downs. His trainer Bob Baffert has won the race three times and his father, Big Brown, won the Derby in 2008. ODDS: 6-1.

 

Based on his Monday workout, American Pharoah moves into the top favorite spot.

Based on his Monday workout, American Pharoah moves into the top favorite spot.

American Pharoah – Worked super at Churchill on Sunday and will likely go off as the favorite having won his last four starts going away, giving Baffert the top two betting choices in the field. Last year, he was voted the champion 2-year-old colt and this year he’s won both of his starts easily but was facing overmatched opponents. ODDS: 5-1.

Frosted – Closed at 40-1 in the final Derby future bet but will be a much shorter price in the Derby after winning the Wood Memorial, snapping a three-race losing streak. Prior to the Wood, the colt underwent a minor operation to correct a breathing problem and now with a clear throat he may be heard loudly on Saturday. ODDS: 40-1.

Firing Line – If you like Dortmund, you have to like this speedy colt as he finished second beaten only a head the two times they’ve met. Away from Dortmund, Firing Line rolled, scoring by over 14 lengths in the Sunland Derby. ODDS: 13-1.

The colt with the natural diet

The colt with the natural diet

Mubtaahij – If it’s hay, oats and water you want for your Derby winner, this is your colt as he will be the lone starter not to race with Lasix, the anti-bleeding medication that has flooded American racing. This will be his first start in America after racing in the desert in Dubai. ODDS: 8-1.

Carpe Diem – Maybe money can buy your way into the Derby as this horse cost $1.6 million to purchase. He’s earned $1.5 million so far on the racetrack and will try to seize the day in a big way on Saturday. ODDS: 10-1.

International Star – Will become an international star if he prevails in America’s most famous horse race on Saturday. Has won his last three starts but is stepping up in company, which may put out his flame. ODDS: 17-1

Tencendur – Was listed at 11-1 in the final Derby future pool as part of the mutuel field but will be a much bigger price on Saturday being on his own. He still has an outside chance to light up Broadway for owner Philip Birsh, the CEO of Playbill, after finishing a much improved second in the Wood Memorial. ODDS: 11-1.

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

Harmuth_6961

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.

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

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

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.

ESL negotiating with Twitch for new exclusive league

ESL negotiating with Twitch for new exclusive league

The ESL [the eSports league] is negotiating a deal with Twitch, Vulcun, and top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams to establish a new CS:GO league independent of Valve. What’s particularly interesting (and potentially alarming) about the plan is that according to the Daily Dot, the new league would be exclusive, meaning that teams playing under its auspices would not be allowed to play anywhere else. The ESL, however, says it’s not seeking to prevent teams attending tournaments put on by other organizations.

The plan is being backed by Vulcun, which earlier this week announced that it had raised $12 million in new financing through investors including Sequoia Capital, Universal Music Group, Mark Pincus of Zynga, and other “angel investors.” Sources say the total value of the package offered by ESL and Vulcun runs around $18 million, a “hefty chunk of which” will be paid to teams in exchange for the exclusivity agreement. The deal will also reportedly see exclusive online broadcasting rights granted to Twitch.

The exclusivity angle was challenged by Managing Director of Pro Gaming Ulrich Schuzle, however, who tweeted a link to an ESL post on Reddit shortly after reports of the negotiations came out. “There is only one thing to say about this: ESL is not interested in locking out any tournament organizers from running CS:GO events, nor teams from attending them,” it states.

Full credit to PC Gamer – seen here http://www.pcgamer.com/esl-negotiating-with-twitch-for-new-exclusive-csgo-league/

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 .

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.

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.

 

 

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.