It’s difficult to watch television without seeing advertisement for online fantasy sports leagues. It might become even more difficult in the future, as DraftKings has announced that it has reached an agreement with the National Football League Players’ Association to allow players to appear in its advertisements.
The NFL regular season started three weeks ago, and it showed a major increase in advertisement spending by fantasy sports websites DraftKings and FanDuel.
During the opening week of the 2015 NFL season, DraftKings spent more than $17.8 million on television advertisements. This was higher than any other company in the United States.
Throughout the past week, FanDuel was the top-spending company on television, as it spent $16.9 million. Meanwhile, DraftKings spent $12.6 million, which made it the sixth highest spending company on television advertisements.
Both DraftKings and FanDuel are valued at more than $1 billion.
In July, DraftKings stated that it raised more than $300 million from investors. These investors include Fox Sports, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer and Madison Square Garden Co.
The National Football League Players’ Association declined to comment on the size of this deal. The association has been ramping up its efforts to market players of the NFL. So far, the association has added six new licenses this year.
Last week, the association launched a new media company called Athlete Content & Entertainment. The goal of this company will be to promote players off the field.
DraftKings is not the first fantasy sports company to form a partnership with the players’ association of the NFL. The other company is DailyMVP from TopLine Game Labs.
More than 41 million Americans play fantasy sports every year. The average age of participants is 34 years old. More than 80% of people who play fantasy sports are male, and 78% of participants are college graduates.
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