Category Archives: Fantasy Sports

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/

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 .

Walt Disney/ESPN to invest $250m in fantasy sports operator DraftKings

Daily fantasy sports operator DraftKings has reportedly received a $250m shot in the arm from Walt Disney Co, the parent company of sports media giant ESPN.

A possible tie-up between DraftKings and Disney was hinted at late last month. On Friday – a very Good Friday for the Boston-based DraftKings – the Wall Street Journal reported that Disney had pulled the trigger on the deal, giving the Mouseketeers up to a one-fifth stake in DraftKings. The deal would place a total value on DraftKings of around $900m.

Neither Disney nor DraftKings has yet to officially comment on the rumors. Sports Business Daily reported that the deal includes a commitment by DraftKings to spend slightly over $500m advertising its services on ESPN’s platforms over the next three years. In exchange, DraftKings would get exclusive use of much of ESPN’s fantasy content.

The news comes just one day after DraftKings announced it had expanded its partnership with Major League Baseball to become the league’s ‘official daily fantasy partner.’ Disney joins a host of venture capital firms that have placed a bet on DraftKings’ future success, including the Raine Group, Redpoint Ventures, GGV Capital and Atlas Venture.

DraftKings becomes ‘official daily fantasy game’ of Major League Baseball

Daily fantasy sports (DFS) operator DraftKings has become the ‘official daily fantasy game’ of Major League Baseball (MLB).

On Thursday, DraftKings announced a “multi-year expansion of its exclusive partnership” with MLB, which took an undisclosed equity stake in DraftKings two years ago. The announcement comes just days before Sunday’s commencement of the 2015 MLB season.

The partners’ new relationship will include co-branded MLB DFS games plus “unique games and fan experiences.” DraftKings will enjoy extensive promotion across MLB properties, including MLB.com, live sports streaming service MTL.TV, the MLB Network and the league’s official social media properties. DraftKings will also enjoy a highly visible presence at MLB ballparks and plans to partner with individual MLB franchises on “once-in-a-lifetime, market-specific in-ballpark experiences.”

DraftKings is already the official DFS provider for the National Hockey League. Rivals FanDuel have struck an exclusive deal with the National Basketball Association that allowed the NBA to take an undisclosed equity stake in FanDuel.

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

By The Daily Payoff @TheDailyPayoff

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

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

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

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

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

Is MLB Ready To Hit A Pay Fantasy Homer?

By The Daily Payoff Staff @TheDailyPayoff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

March Madness and MLB Linked by CEO Pool

By Joe Favorito

@joefav

How can baseball benefit from March Madness? It’s In The Pool.

As we head toward the Final Four and Opening Day of Baseball there is an interesting mix we had previously talked about that ties both sports together in an unusual way. At the beginning of March Madness, Bloomberg announced a pool with 32 high level CEO’s each kicking in $10,000, with the winner getting the whole pot, $320,000 to go to a dedicated charity of their choice.

The list of CEO’s ranged from Michael Bloomberg to AOL’s Tim Armstrong, and from the Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio to Under Armour’s Kevin Plank, all chipping in for the cause of their choice. From education to food banks, cancer charities to wrestling programs, the help would be for a wide range of programs.

As we turn the corner and head for home in Indianapolis the Final Four has little Cinderella and lots of favorites, all of which could lead to a compelling finish to a great event at Lucas Oil Stadium. Who in the Bloomberg pool could cash in? One unique mix has baseball potentially benefitting, while the other may have some good karma for basketball and LeBron James.

Gary Cohen, CEO of Goldman Sachs, leads the group with all four of his Final Four intact, but needs Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin Badgers to win it all. If Frank Kaminsky and company make it past Kentucky and through the finals, the windfall would go to HARLEM RBI, the not-for-profit that works with Major League Baseball to grow the game in inner cities.

Cohen’s 144 points places him ahead of Quicken Loans Founder and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers Dan Gilbert, who is second with 139 points and has 3/4’s of the Final Four left. The difference is Gilbert has overwhelming favorite Kentucky winning it all, which would move him to the top spot as he plays for the Children’s Tumor Foundation .

EBay President and CEO John Donahoe is third, with Milwaukee Bucks owner Mark Lasry fourth, although neither appear to have the mix to leapfrog the top two.

On the bottom, keep fretting Lakers fans, as it looks like CEO Jeanie Buss will be bringing up the rear with just 90 points, although she does have Kentucky winning it all. Plank sadly is just ahead of her and with no one left in his Final Four, he may hit bottom as well. All in fun and philanthropy though.

The new concept by Bloomberg could bode well for giving elsewhere as well. How about a Women’s World Cup pool coming up as well, with some global heads putting $10 K in the kitty.

View original Source: Bloomberg’s Brackets for a Cause

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

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

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

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

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

NFL Opens The Pay Fantasy Door For Teams

Joe Favorito @JoeFav

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

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

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

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

President Barack Obama’s NCAA Tournament Bracket

Here’s President Barack Obama’s NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket

ESPNPresident Barack Obama has filled out his annual NCAA Tournament bracket.

Kentucky is the heavy favorite to win the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and President Barack Obama is going with the crowd, picking the Wildcats to finish the season 40-0 and win it all.

Obama made filled out his annual bracket for ESPN and Kentucky is not the only “chalky” pick the president is making.

Of his Final Four picks, three are No. 1 seeds and the fourth is a 2-seed.

Here is the full bracket via WhiteHouse.gov:

Mondogoal To Launch First-Ever Fantasy Soccer Platform For 2015 Women’s World Cup

Fantasy sports has made its way to the women’s soccer game…

By: Joe Favorito @JoeFav

New Game To Include All Nations And Will Be The First-Ever Daily Fantasy Product For A Women’s Team Sport

“The Women’s World Cup is a phenomenal platform for the game, and will draw not just passionate soccer fans but a casual audience interested in both women’s sport and the majesty of a global event,” said Shergul Arshad, CEO of Mondogoal in a recent releas.. “By creating this game for a global audience we will provide a unique engagement platform for all, and we believe it will raise the visibility and the interest not just for soccer but for women’s sports as well. In North America, Daily Fantasy Sports has taken off, and interest in soccer is at an all-time high. With contests for Major League Soccer and now Women’s World Cup, we are making sure the North American soccer fan not only can play fantasy contests from popular European leagues, but also from the best available locally.”

Mondogoal will have daily pay fantasy games throughout the Women’s World Cup for all teams and all matches. Each day of the group stages, fans will pick a team of 11 players from the four games on that day using the Mondogoal salary cap format and then watch the Women’s World Cup to see players earn points for their fantasy teams with every contribution they make during the game. Like in any pay fantasy game, the best compiled scores at the end of the day from a series of statistics will win the top cash prizes.

Because Mondogoal is licensed to operate globally, it is the only daily fantasy sports site available for cash play in multiple major markets around the world, with specific emphasis on the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Ireland, and Brazil. In just over 24 weeks since full season launch with its partners in soccer (Chelsea FC, FC Barcelona, Liverpool FC, West Ham United FC, Manchester City FC, and AS Roma), Mondogoal is already offering major cash prizes throughout the week, and the adoption of a new form of engagement with fans of soccer clubs not used to fantasy play is growing exponentially every week. With Mondogoal, simply login or create an account, add funds, and every matchday there is the chance to win money by building a formidable starting 11 and competing in a Head-to-Head battle or Multi-User-Tournaments.

Data analytics for use by consumers are compiled in real time by Perform’s Opta Sports, with points awarded for goals, assist, tackles won or lost, shots on goal, passes completed, shutouts and much more. Mondogoal runs contests on a daily or matchday basis for La Liga, Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga, Major League Soccer, Ligue 1, the FA Cup, European Championship Qualifiers and the prestigious Champions League and Europa League.

For a full set of contests and to sign-up today please visit: www.mondogoal.com.

Mondogoal, incorporated in the Isle of Man with business operations in Boston, Massachusetts USA, has a compelling and unique fantasy sports engagement system to enable fans to have many ways for their players to earn points. With data provided by the world’s leading analytics company, Opta Sports, statistics are updated live, so fans can enjoy a true second screen experience as they watch their favorite matches on TV or at the stadium. While many sites can offer fantasy sports or even fantasy soccer, no one brings the excitement of real-time scoring, multi-league competition and large cash competitions to the global soccer audience the way Mondogoal does.

The company has an impressive roster of investors with backgrounds at Google, eBay, Morgan Stanley, Bingham Dana & Gould, and JBoss and has equity advisors who have been leaders in the eGaming space as well as in the business and digital operations of some of the world’s elite soccer clubs. For more detail go tomondogoal.com

Daily fantasy pushes to continue growth streak

By Eric Fisher

After more than 60 years in existence, fantasy sports has seen its foundation dramatically altered by a younger sibling.

The family newcomer — daily fantasy — is fun, popular and easy to get along with, and has quickly become a favorite child. But many wonder if the charm of youth will endure. So daily fantasy operators are acting aggressively to ensure that last year’s mainstream arrival was just the beginning.

Few business advancements have had as much effect on an industry as daily fantasy has over the past year, and the early signs of 2015 show no slowdown.

Boston-based DraftKings, one of two major daily fantasy game operators, is actively developing a Series D venture capital round that would exceed $100 million and value the company in the neighborhood of $1 billion, executives there said. A closing is expected sometime this spring.

New York-based FanDuel, DraftKings’ key rival, is said to be mulling a similar major fundraising move, industry sources said. This comes after both companies received significant funding rounds just last summer, worth a collective $111 million, that catapulted them into prominence.

Those prior funding rounds — $70 million for FanDuel and $41 million for Draft-Kings — nearly eclipsed the entire history of venture money in fantasy sports up to that point, and involved major entities such as New York investment bank The Raine Group and NBC Sports Ventures…..

Daily Fantasy sites have poured money into sponsor deals (like FanDuel’s deal with the Magic) and advertising spots.

Daily fantasy’s quick play and big payouts have drawn a desirable young demographic to the FanDuel (above) and DraftKings sites.

Full credit to Sports Business Journal and Eric Fisher

Your March Madness pool is probably illegal

By Mark Koba

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

An estimated 50 million people reportedly took part in March Madness office pools last year, and the number should be about the same this time around. And those people may be breaking the law.

Trying to pick the winner of college basketball’s men’s national championship tournament, while avoiding bracket-busting losses along the way, can be downright exhausting and time consuming.

In fact, companies are expected to lose at least $1.2 billion for every unproductive work hour during the first week of the tournament,according to global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

So is it legal?

“The answer lies in the legal meaning of ‘bet,’ ” said Tony Campiti, a lawyer with Thompson & Knight in Dallas.

Seen on CNBC. Read full post here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101488738#.

Monmouth Park inks DFS marketing deal; DFS endgame is real-money sports betting

New Jersey’s Monmouth Park racetrack has struck a marketing partnership with the Fantasy Sports Network (FNTSY) to promote the track’s new daily fantasy sports product.

Monmouth biz-dev VP Bill Knauf said the partnership encompassed brand cross-promotion and development of an on-site presence at the track. Louis Malone, chief strategy officer of FNTSY parent company Anthem Media Group, said his firm would work with Monmouth to select a website game vendor to develop and operate all new games.

Monmouth announced plans to launch a fantasy product in November after its real-money sports beting plans were thwarted by US District Judge Michael Shipp. Monmouth originally planned to launch its fantasy offering in time for the Super Bowl but later revised that timeline to target the start of the NCAA March Madness tournament. The latest timeline is to be up and running by opening day of the 2015 Major League Baseball season.

DFS OPERATORS ENDGAME IS REAL-MONEY SPORTS BETTING?

Meanwhile, speculation is mounting that DFS operators are ultimately planning to convert their fantasy operations to real-money single-game sports betting.

University of Indianapolis sports marketing professor Laurence DeGaris told Bloomberg that DFS “delivers a similar fan experience to gambling, so I expect the current database of customers would provide a good foundation for sports gamblers.”

Market researchers Nielsen’s annual Year in Sports report said the number of DFS players rose five-fold last year to 5.1m, most of whom are men in their mid-30s or early 40s. The number of DFS players who play via mobile devices rose 847% to 3m.

First ever fantasy sports combine to be held at Wynn Las Vegas

The fantasy sports industry is growing at such a rapid pace that there doesn’t appear to be any ceiling on how big it can get this year. We already know about the massive gains attributed to FanDuel and DraftKings, two of the biggest daily fantasy sports sites in the business today. The former has even announced that it would be hosting the 2015 World Fantasy Basketball Championship in Miami, Florida from April 9 to 11, 2015.

Now, another “first in the business” has been announced and it’s called the Fantasy Sports Combine. The name pretty much explains what you can expect from the three-day event scheduled from July 17 to 19, 2015 at the Wynn Las Vegas and Encore. The use of the word “combine” is of course attributed to the NFL Scouting Combine, a place where college football players showcase their skills and talents in front of scouts, coaches, and front office personnel of NFL teams.

The concept is pretty much the same with the Fantasy Sports Combine even if the purpose is different. Instead of trying to impress team officials, the Fantasy Sports Combine is being prepared to become the go- to place for fantasy sports enthusiasts who are looking for “game-changing insights and strategies on how to win daily, weekly and season long leagues.”

The driving force behind the Fantasy Sports Combine is Drew “Bo” Brownstein, a former hedge fund manager who served a four-month prison term for insider trading. Having already left that part of his life behind him, Bronwstein came up with the idea of the convention last year, just as the popularity of the daily fantasy sports market began gaining serious steam.

“Fantasy sports touches everyone from the head trader at Goldman Sachs to a guy working 60 hours a week at the post office,” Brownstein told Bloomberg. “And it touches both men and women. Its popularity is booming and only getting bigger.”

To his credit, Brownstein is doing his part to make the Fantasy Sports Combine a legitimate event that fantasy sports players from all over North America, maybe even the world, can go to.

He has already assembled a slew of sports personalities who will be part of the three-day event. From proclaimed “fantasy gurus” like Yahoo Sports’ Brad Evans and DirecTV’s John Hansen to legendary coaches like Mike Shanahan and Mike Ditka, the Fantasy Sports Combine is shaping up to be a true spectacle for the industry.

Iowa is one step closer to legalizing fantasy sports

Iowa lawmakers have introduced a bill which would would clarify fantasy sports as a skill game and authorize cash pay offs to participants in the state.

Senate Study Bill 1068 was introduced at the end of January by Senator Jeff Danielson and was approved by the Senate State Government Committee on a voice vote with only one dissent on Wednesday.

Danielson said the proposal would simply declare that fantasy sports in Iowa are not considered gambling and are not governed by the state’s regulatory framework.

“Fantasy sports as defined by the U.S. government is a game of skill. It is not a game of chance,” Danielson added.

The bill states that winning outcomes must reflect the knowledge and skill of the participants, and “are determined predominantly by accumulated statistical results of the performance of individuals in multiple actual sporting events, and no winning outcome is based on the score, or performance of any single actual ream or combination of such teams or solely on any single performance of an individual athlete in any single actual sporting or other event.”

Once approved, Iowa casinos could offer fantasy sports with cash payoffs but they would still be banned from allowing gamblers to bet on athletic events like the Super Bowl.

The games are offered through major league sports websites, as well as through ESPN, Yahoo and other online content providers. An estimated 264,000 Iowans participate in the games but no Iowans have been prosecuted for playing fantasy sports games, according to the Iowa attorney general’s office.

New Jersey betting advocates say daily fantasy sports bigger threat to ‘integrity’

South Carolina legislators have filed a new bill to legalize sports betting in the Palmetto state. The H 3127 bill, sponsored by Democratic Representatives Todd Rutherford and Cezar McKnight, would authorize not just betting on pro sports events but also pari-mutuel racing and casinos. The state currently boasts only a couple of casino cruise boats that sail gamblers into international waters.

Before anyone gets excited, even if the dynamic Democratic duo can convince South Carolina Republicans and anti-gambling Gov. Nikki Haley to get on board, the bill would also require a referendum on amending the state’s constitution, so basically, it’s the legislative equivalent of a lottery ticket.

South Carolina’s bill comes just days after sports betting legislation was filed in Indiana. ESPN scribe David Purdum (@DavidPurdum) says we can expect a similar effort in Minnesota this year, with state Rep. Phyllis Kahn promising to introduce a new version of the HF 522 sports betting bill she introduced in 2013.

NEW JERSEY BETTING ADVOCATES SLAM LEAGUE HYPOCRISY OVER DAILY FANTASY SPORTS

Of course, none of these bills are going anywhere unless New Jersey’s latest court challenge of the federal PASPA sports betting prohibition succeeds. The state’s advocates, including Gov. Chris Christie, the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and the leaders of the state’s two legislative chambers, filed their latest briefs with the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday.

Most of the arguments in the briefs will be well familiar to anyone who has followed this issue. The new wrinkle appears to be an attack on the pro sports leagues’ recent embrace of daily fantasy sports (DFS). Former NBA commissioner David Stern, who staunchly opposed New Jersey’s betting plans while he was still on the NBA payroll, recently told CNBC that (in his view, at least) DFS was gambling and this had changed the dynamic of the debate.

The Horsemen’s brief asks whether the District Court that upheld the leagues’ injunction against New Jersey’s legislation made the right decision given the leagues “unclean hands.” Said hands allegedly became unclean via the leagues’ “support, ownership, sponsorship of, investments in and profits from business enterprises engaged in the same activity they hypocritically sought to enjoin in the action.”

Indiana sports betting bill intro’d; Canada MP pleads NHL to rethink betting stance

A member of Indiana’s state House of Representatives has introduced a bill to authorize legal sports betting at state casinos (land-based or riverboat), racinos and off-track betting sites. House Bill 1073 has no official name, but it should be called the We Can’t Do Squat Until The Feds Say It’s Okay Act of 2015.

The bill requires the state gaming commission to ensure intrastate sports betting is compatible with federal law, something legislators in New Jersey have had an awful time trying to put past the feds. Fierce opposition will also come from the NCAA, which is based in Indiana, and which has joined the four pro sports leagues in fighting New Jersey’s quest for legal betting.

The bill’s author, state Rep. Alan Morrison (pictured on the left), says the goal is to get the state’s regulatory ducks in a row so that it’s ready to act if/when the federal government finally gets around to amending or abolishing the 1992 PASPA sports betting prohibition. Morrison told the Indianapolis Star that the state had become “increasingly reliant” on gaming revenue, which has been “trending down” of late. As such, Morrison says it’s incumbent upon legislators “to figure out how to fix it or to improve on what we have.”

Morrison has also introduced a separate bill (1074) that would authorize daily fantasy sports (DFS) services at state racinos. Not surprisingly, Morrison believes this bill has a far greater chance of making it into law.

MONMOUTH PARK DELAYS FANTASY SPORTS ROLLOUT

Meanwhile, New Jersey’s Monmouth Park racetrack has delayed plans to roll out its own DFS offering. NorthJersey.com quoted track operator Dennis Drazin (pictured center) acknowledging that the system wouldn’t be up and running before the NFL playoffs were over. Drazin said the plan now was to aim to be operational by the time the NCAA March Madness basketball tourney kicks off or for the start of the 2015 baseball season.

Drazin said Monmouth had been wrestling with whether to offer DFS online rather than make customers physically present themselves at the track. The problem is how to attract players to a website when there are already multiple big players in this space (DraftKings, FanDuel, etc.) with which a Monmouth site would have to compete.

MGT Sports team with porn purveyors Vivid on daily fantasy sports site

Fantasy sports operator MGT Sports have teamed up with veteran porn purveyors Vivid Entertainment on a new daily fantasy sports site, VividBetSports.com. No release date for the site has been announced and the site is currently only taking email addresses for its future beta launch.

MGT is an offshoot of MGT Capital Investments, the folks behind DraftDay.com (currently #3 behind FanDuel and DraftKings) and recently launched Daily Fantasy Legend, the first DFS product on Facebook, while Vivid has been generating boners for over three decades now.

The partnership looks to tap into the easy crossover potential between the male-dominated sports world and the legions of men merrily wanking away in front of a computer screen as we speak. Tuesday’s announcement follows last month’s news that Nevada strip club impresario Harry Mohney was looking to launch a Hustler-branded sportsbook.

MGT CEO Robert Ladd noted the crossover potential was huge given that “80% of fantasy sports players are males with a mean age of 34 years.” Ladd said the Vivid partnership “offers a dynamic opportunity for millions of Vivid fans” to drop the Kleenex long enough to “test their skill in the fantasy sports world.” Vivid co-chairman Bill Asher said MGT brought ‘unequalled technical and operating know-how” while Vivid “provide access and marketing experience to a loyal and enthusiastic fan base.”

The new DFS site will be cross-marketed via Vivid Radio, Vivid TV and other Vivid properties, offering one-click access to anyone whose penile refractory period is longer than a minute or two. Vivid claims that 30% of all internet traffic is porn-related, so the marriage of the two companies unites a fast-growing online business segment with a prime conduit of online traffic.

Frankly, we’re just happy we can marry a CalvinAyre.com article with a shot of an all-time fave from Vivid’s golden age, the one and only Racquel Darrian. Makes a seriously nice change from pictures of Norbert Teufelberger, that’s for sure.