Daily fantasy sports suffers first decline following negative media onslaught

Daily fantasy sports sites saw reduced participation in their marquee NFL contests this weekend, suggesting the relentless march of negative publicity is beginning to take its toll.

According to UK-based analysts SuperLobby, entry fees for the NFL Week 5 guaranteed prize pools (GPP) on DraftKings came to $22.9m, down 12% from Week 4. FanDuel’s NFL GPP fees were down just over 3% to $19.9m.

The declines mark the first week-to-week decrease for both sites so far this NFL season. Total NFL GPP entries across all DFS operators were 7.3m, down over 6% from Week 4.

DraftKings’ total number of paid GPP entries fell 9% to 3.76m while FanDuel suffered a 3% dip to 3.27m. DraftKings’ $7m Millionaire Maker tournament suffered a 10% drop in entries to 353k while FanDuel’s NFL Sunday Million was basically flat at 229k.