The XFL and The Action Network have announced a sports betting content partnership. As part of the collaboration, The Action Network becomes a preferred source of XFL betting analysis and information and will provide sports betting content for the league’s website at XFL.com.
All season long, The Action Network will develop multiple content features – including daily news from across the league, analysis of games and player performances, as well as expert picks and projections for both The Action Network and XFL platforms. The Action Network’s talent will also appear in XFL’s betting-related content.
“We’re thrilled to partner with the XFL and introduce in-depth betting coverage to a new legion of fans,” said Ari Borod, Chief Commercial Officer of The Action Network. “We remain committed to bringing our audience best-in-class coverage with innovative leagues and rights holders as the sports betting landscape continues to rapidly evolve.”
“Our strategy is to embrace the spread and partnering with The Action Network helps us provide our fans with timely sports betting news and information,” said Jeffrey Pollack, President and COO of the XFL. “We want what our fans want and millions of football fans have an interest in betting on sports, so we’re answering the call and gearing up to be fully responsive.”
The Action Network will provide branded content on the XFL website and have rights to use certain league IP to promote the partnership across its platforms.
FOX Sports Super 6, a free-to-play sports prediction game that offers players the chance to win hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash each week, launches nationwide today.
Fans can enter multiple contests each week, with jackpot prizes up to $250,000 in cash. To play, users simply choose who they think the winning team will be and the corresponding margin of victory within predefined ranges or answer six multiple-choice questions, giving them a chance to split thousands in guaranteed cash prizes.
FOX Sports Super 6 offers a variety of ways for football fans to play throughout the season, and will be offering two NFL games and a college football game at launch:
Super 6 NFL Sunday
To play, fans will select the outcome and margin of victory of six upcoming NFL Sunday matchups. Players who correctly select all six picks could win up to $250,000. If no player correctly selects all six picks to win the $250,000 jackpot prize, there will be smaller guaranteed cash prizes.
TNF Super 6
FOX Sports Super 6 is also offering up to $25,000 in guaranteed prizes for each TNF Super 6 game. To play, fans will answer six multiple choice prediction questions about the upcoming Thursday Night Football game, across the 13-game TNF schedule across FOX and NFL Network. The $25,000 in guaranteed cash prizes will be divided among the players who select the most correct answers.
College Football Saturday Super 6
For each Saturday of college football, fans can play by picking the winning team and by how many points (e.g. Texas by 10 to 14 points). There is a jackpot prize available each week with thousands guaranteed to be paid.
Mark Silverman, President, National Networks, FOX Sports said: “FOX Sports Super 6 brings our unique and entertaining Fox attitude and our unrivaled talent to this fun free-to-play game. The FOX Sports Super 6 app will heighten the excitement of watching live sports while simultaneously deepening our viewers’ engagement with our brand.”
FOX Sports Super 6 anticipates adding more sports, with basketball slated to start in October.
“These awesome free-to-play games will get fans closer to the sports they love, competing against FOX Sports stars to win huge prizes,” said Robin Chhabra, Chief Corporate Development Officer, The Stars Group. “The FOX Sports Super 6 app offers a quick, simple and fun experience that we think sports fans here will love, just like they do in other countries where we run them.”
Thirty-eight million American adults—15 percent of the U.S. adult population—are planning to bet on National Football League (NFL) games this season, according to a new survey by the American Gaming Association (AGA).
The rapid expansion of legal sports betting has provided increased opportunity for millions of Americans to bet safely with a licensed, regulated sportsbook. This year, 7 million Americans say they will bet legally at a casino sportsbook, 1.2 million more than last year, and tens of millions of others will place bets with friends, participate in pools or squares contests or place their bets online.
“During this centennial NFL season, more Americans than ever before can wager on football in safe, well-regulated environments,” said Bill Miller, AGA’s president and chief executive officer. “It is clear that as jurisdictions enact policies to provide a legal alternative to the dangerous illegal market, consumers follow suit and seek the protections they deserve.”
The survey, conducted by Morning Consult, also found that nearly one-in-four (24%) American adults say they would place a bet on the NFL if it was legal in their state. As legal sports betting continues to expand, fan engagement with NFL games will see an impact:
39 percent of avid NFL fans plan to place a bet on the NFL this season.
75 percent of NFL bettors say they are more likely to watch a game they bet on.
28 percent are more likely to attend a game they have bet on.
51 percent are more likely to watch pregame shows and commentary.
63 percent are more likely to gather with friends or family to watch a game.
“Sports betting clearly impacts fans’ enthusiasm for engaging with the NFL. As the legal market grows, it is imperative for gaming and adjacent industries to focus on implementing and promoting legal sports betting responsibly to protect consumers and ensure the viability of legal markets to the continued detriment of illegal operators,” Miller added.
Among NFL fans, the New England Patriots are the favorite to win the Super Bowl (23 percent), followed by the Kansas City Chiefs (8 percent), Dallas Cowboys (7 percent) and New Orleans Saints (6 percent).
Background
Since the U.S. Supreme Court repealed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act—the failed federal ban on sports betting—in May 2018, more than $10 billion has been legally wagered on sports.
Thirteen states now offer legal, regulated sports betting, with five more states and the District of Columbia poised to open legal markets in the coming months.
Last September, an AGA study showed that the NFL stands to gain $2.3 billion annually from legalized sports betting, largely due to increased fan engagement.
AGA’s Sports Betting Consumer Study found sports bettors are more interested in the NFL than any other professional sports league (93 percent interested).
Today, the Fan-Controlled Football League (FCFL), the only professional football league where fans call the shots, including the plays themselves in real-time, announced legendary boxing champion Mike Tyson as the seventh Team Owner | Fan Captain to join the Owner’s Box. In addition to calling on fans to shape his team’s destiny – from name selection, serving as the final call on team uniforms, to drafting the players – Tyson brings his passion for sports and trash-talking skills to the league. Once the inaugural season kicks off, fans will find Tyson live commentating throughout games via Twitch, where they will have the unprecedented opportunity to engage with The Champ in a way never before seen in the history of professional sports.
“I’m fired up about joining the FCFL as its newest Team Owner and Fan Captain, and even more so to demolishing the competition,” states Tyson when asked about what he’s looking forward to accomplishing in the FCFL. “Leading into opening day, I’ll be engaging with fans from across the globe to stoke excitement and participation in the development of the Baddest League on the Planet.”
Tyson joins a talented group of global influencers spanning the world of sports and entertainment, all of whom share one common factor – a fervidness for professional football. To date the FCFL has announced six FCFL fan captains, all of whom are Tyson’s ‘competition’ (if you can call them that), including Marshawn Lynch, Richard Sherman, Prince Royce, Kinda Funny, Bobby Bones, and Chad ‘Ochocinco’’ Johnson.
An undisputed heavyweight boxing champion and international entertainer known for his ‘take no prisoners’ approach, Tyson is also a serial entrepreneur; recent projects include a cannabis company called Tyson Ranch and a new podcast, HotBoxin, of which he produces and hosts.
“We are reinventing the sport of football for the digital age and a cultural phenomenon like Iron Mike could not be a better fit for this league. We are impossibly excited for him to bring his unparalleled energy, legendary smack talk, and unrivaled will to win to the FCFL,” shares Patrick Dees, FCFL co-founder and Chief Gaming Officer. “Tyson is a total badass and there is zero doubt in my mind that his team is going to be a force to be reckoned with and I for one, cannot wait to watch him stream his games on Twitch.”
The FCFL is the first professional sports league to combine the passion of live sports, the competitiveness of fantasy sports, the interactivity of video games, and the global reach of esports all into a live-streamed, real-life experience created for the digitally native fan.
Fans will create their team’s brand, hire (and fire, if necessary) a coaching staff, build roster through live fan-run draft, and call all their team’s plays in real-time. Games will be a seven-on-seven competition on a 50-yard field in a state-of-the-art production studio, creating a fast-paced, open style of play conducive to an action-packed sixty minutes of football. All games will be live streamed on Amazon’s Twitch, the world’s leading social video service and community for gamers and eSports. Using a brand new, unprecedented Twitch Extension, fans will get to use an interactive overlay that allows them to call the plays natively on top of the Twitch player.
To kick this announcement off the FCFL with WAX have partnered to give back to the fans who can enter to win one of three prizes anyone would be lucky to win: a pair of boxing gloves, a pair of boxing shoes, or a football – all of which are complete with Tyson’s autograph.
Morten Andersen (Wikimedia Commons/Samjudge. from UK)
Morten Andersen, who holds the all-time record for most games played in the NFL, will be delivering a keynote speech at this month’s Betting on Sports America conference, held from 23-25 April at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in New Jersey.
Andersen is attending #bosamerica as an ambassador for the Denmark-based igaming affiliate Better Collective – a key sponsor of the event whose US-facing brands include Betoclock.com, the us-bookies.com hub and a fast-growing bet-state network already featuring bet-nj.com, bet-wv.com and bet-pa.com.
The “Great Dane” will be talking about the NFL’s unique ability to connect with its fan base – and particularly those with an affinity for sports betting – as part of the “Sports and Betting”‘ track on Thursday 25 April, the second full day of the conference.
At the age of 17, Andersen did an exchange in the USA from his native Denmark. As there was no European football available at his school, he applied his skills to American football.
What followed was an illustrious career in the NFL, where he retired in 2008 as the all-time leader for games played and points scored in NFL history, as well as being the all-time leading scorer for both the New Orleans Saints – where he spent 13 seasons – and the Atlanta Falcons, for whom he spent a combined eight seasons.
Better Collective CEO Jesper Søgaard said: “It is exciting for us to be joined by Morten Andersen, an undisputed legend of the NFL. Andersen’s journey from starting in Denmark and obtaining such success in the USA is an obvious source of inspiration for us and our US strategy, and we are proud to have him as an ambassador for Better Collective.
“Betting on Sports America was already a key part of the 2019 agenda for Better Collective, as a prime opportunity to increase our knowledge of where affiliates sit in the new marketplace.”
Morten “The Great Dane” Andersen from his inauguration into the NFL Hall of Fame
Andersen added: “I am very honoured to be joining Better Collective at Betting on Sports America. Danish values are something that I have always adhered to throughout my career in the US, and I’m happy to see Better Collective is applying those same values to the betting industry.
“I hope to draw upon my experience from over 25 years in the NFL to deliver some useful insight to betting industry leaders, particularly those focused on making a mark in the newly liberalised US market.”
Rasmus Sojmark, SBC Founder and CEO, commented: “The so-called European betting ‘invasion’ – led by software providers, front-end operators and affiliates – has been a major talking point post-PASPA repeal, and something that will form a key part of the discussion at the inaugural Betting on Sports America conference.
“Therefore it is fitting that we can present Morten Andersen – one of the finest European exports across the top four US sports – as part of the stacked up agenda. We’d like to thank our friends at Better Collective for making this happen.”
STATS, the worldwide leader in sports data and intelligence, announced that media and gambling sales director Roy Clements will speak on a panel at Betting on Football at Stamford Bridge in London today.
Clements will present on the panel, “Data – do you get what you pay for?” at 15:30 on Thursday. The panel will focus on types of data feeds, delivery mechanisms, and creating the right data package for a business. Assaf Stieglitz, founder of Odds1x2, will moderate the panel with participation from other panelists spanning the sports data gambling space.
“Data is the backbone of the sports gambling sector, and having the right data feeds and integration is paramount to getting a sportsbook or other sports betting company off the ground,” said Clements. “Fast and accurate live data is obviously important, but we are also seeing a new wave of AI-powered predictions that are more accurately anticipating the events in a match. With third-screen experiences becoming a new part of following a match, it is important for companies to consider data integration when creating a fan experience on their platform. At STATS, we’re committed to investing in faster and more accurate data, and creating new match insights through AI-powered data solutions.”
Betting on Football brings together decision-makers from international operators to address the recent issues and opportunities in the sports betting industry. For more information, visit: https://sbcevents.com/betting-on-football-2019/
