Monthly Archives: July 2015

GBGC Says Gray Gaming Markets Still More Profitable Than Strictly Regulated Ones, But Future Trends May Change That

Global Betting and Gaming Consultancy (GBGC) CEO Warwick Bartlett says that gray gaming markets are still the most profitable for operators, at least based on the numbers from the last five years. The GBGC leader says that these are the conclusions that can be drawn from his company’s recently published index of iGaming companies, listing […]

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WSOP Day 47: Joseph McKeehen Leads Main Event Going into Day Five, Carl DiVeglia III of Team CardsChat Still Crushing It

The World Series of Poker Main Event enters Day Five today, and it’s getting serious. And with WSOP 2015 quickly wrapping up at the Rio Convention Center, the Pavilion Room no longer has any poker in it, and the Poker Kitchen won’t be serving any more food this summer. But the players still playing out the […]

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Daily Fantasy: Is Simpler Better?

By Joe Favorito @JoeFav @TheDailyPayoff

With Yahoo moving heavily into the daily pay fantasy space to challenge market leaders DraftKings and Fan Duel, the rumors swirl that other big media companies will follow suit to expand their fantasy offerings at some point,.
But the question still remains over market size; especially growing the market size vs. splitting up the existing pie continue to exist.
Yahoo’s move into the pay fantasy space makes sense because of the time its executives have already spent in the traditional fantasy business and their extensive work in search over the years that my give them insight into where and who to engage. If it can translate those casual searchers already on their platform into engaged fantasy players who can now win cash, their business grows.

However the one key factor that all these platforms need, and the one factor that remains a possibility for smaller players, is simplicity. The casual fan remains to see pay fantasy as a daunting task. No time to understand or plan for large drafts and to do research, especially for baseball, mean that simple, almost lottery-type games that translate easily to a mobile environment, might be the golden opportunity.

“The ‘casual’ fan wants simplicity so that they can participate in fantasy football contests. The two big players are far from simple and cater to the avid, GM type fan,” said Chris Johnson, founder of another startup in the space, Top3 Fantasy Sports, www.top3fantasysports.com, which will launch this fall around the NFL season. “The ‘casual’ US fan base is gigantic, however, all of the games on the market are all similar in nature, caps, trades, waivers, etc. Fans are clamoring for simplicity and Top3 has created it. Top3 eliminates all of the confusion and complexity.”

Still that lack of complexity needs marketing to break through the clutter, and although Johnson understands that louder draws the attention in marketing, he still sees that the growing pie, especially around big events, may migrate to simple games. Those games are attractive when fans can spend a little, win a lot, and not have to be distracted for more than minutes at a time.

“Select which QB you believe will score the most fantasy points on any given Sunday wins a big cash prize,” he added. “Like fans do for the Kentucky Derby, easy as 1.2.3. Select based on matchups, your favorite team or whatever suits your fancy and have fun! No need to have a PHD to join.”

Simpler the better, is what Johnson and many smaller challengers like DraftPot and others are banking on, literally. Will the big media companies making the noise also go that route more deeply, or will their marketing noise grow the pie for all. That will be the million dollar business challenge.