An Ad Blitz for Fantasy Sports Games, But Some See Plain Old Gambling

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An Ad Blitz for Fantasy Sports Games, But Some See Plain Old Gambling - by Joe Drape and Ken Belson/ Pro Football/ International New York Times/ The New York Times/ nytimes.com

"The average amount of actual game action over the course of a three-hour broadcast of an N.F.L. game is about 11 minutes. Fans watching the first week of this season’s games might have been struck by how much of the rest of the broadcast was filled by advertisements for the hottest product in the sports industry: daily fantasy sports games.

The two biggest players, DraftKings and FanDuel, have unleashed aggressive promotional campaigns costing millions of dollars in recent weeks in hopes of gaining supremacy in a surging pastime that, so far, stands on the permissible side of sports gambling, even as it has come under government scrutiny..."

The Jacksonville Jaguars, in their alliance with FanDuel, opened FanDuelVille at EverBank Field this season. Credit Jacksonville Jaguars


Richard

 

[VegasBella]

Yeah, it's gambling. But so is day trading.

 

[ace2000]

... or buying and selling timeshares.

 

[Elan]

Even though I really enjoy sports and sports gambling, I was shocked at the frequency of ads for FanDuel and DraftKings while watching football this past weekend. Seemingly every other commercial was for one of those two entities. For the record, I signed up for DraftKings on Monday.....

 

[ace2000]

For the record, I signed up for DraftKings on Monday.....

I did DraftKings last year and I'd advise you to be prepared. There is a skill involved with picking the right combination of players and I ended up quickly losing my money. I spend about $1000 every year on normal Fantasy Football (through CBS and Yahoo leagues), and usually win at least what I put in, so I am not a novice. Perhaps when I have more time I may try it again, but just realize you're playing against pros who seem to know what they're doing.

 

[Elan]

I did DraftKings last year and I'd advise you to be prepared. There is a skill involved with picking the right combination of players and I ended up quickly losing my money. I spend about $1000 every year on normal Fantasy Football (through CBS and Yahoo leagues), and usually win at least what I put in, so I am not a novice. Perhaps when I have more time I may try it again, but just realize you're playing against pros who seem to know what they're doing.

Yep, thanks. Not my first sports betting rodeo either.

I am not into it big. I deposited only enough to get a good feeling on how difficult it is to win something and what strategies are required. I'm as likely to bet on golf and/or baseball as I am football.

 

[VegasBella]

If securities laws were like gambling laws, it would be illegal for people to buy shares of Google or a United States Treasury bond, because that would be gambling, but legal for them to invest in currency swaps that pay a return if the Swiss franc, Argentine peso and Vietnamese dong together outperform the Swedish krona, Mexican peso and South Korean won.

The fantasy sports industry argues that its service is not gambling at all, but rather a game of skill. It’s the sort of game specifically allowed by most state laws and by a 2006 federal law restricting online gambling that carved out protections for fantasy sports leagues. The industry is right about that much. It is a skill, and it unquestionably rewards those who apply dogged analytics to assembling their fantasy lineups.

Although daily fantasy sports advertisements target casual fans, a disproportionate share of the contest entries — and even more disproportionate share of the winnings — go to people who play the game on a scale most armchair sports fans couldn’t imagine.

From another NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/u...den-cost-of-americas-weird-gambling-laws.html

 

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Those DraftKings and FanDuel Ads You're Already Sick of Are Keeping TV Ads Afloat - by Peter Kafka/ Media/ recode.net

Even if you’re a pretty serious sports fan, you probably hadn’t heard of “daily fantasy sports” — fantasy sports games that let you make short-term bets instead of playing an entire season of pretend sports — until a year or two ago.

Now you hear about it all the time. You don’t have a choice.

One is that DraftKings and FanDuel, the two biggest daily fantasy sports players, ramped up their marketing significantly over the last few months, in sync with the start of the NFL season last week. (There are daily fantasy sports games for all kinds of sports. But just like in TV, football is king in daily fantasy.)

Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente thinks DraftKings and FanDuel collectively spent more than $150 million on TV and Web ads in the last three months. And yes, you saw a lot more of them in the last few days: DiClemente thinks about a third of that spending came in the last week, as football kicked off.

The other reason you’re seeing so much advertising right now is that FanDuel and DraftKings, which have both raised hundreds of millions via venture and strategic investors, are racing to lock up market share in a brand-new industry.

This may not be sustainable for the long term — especially if one of the two companies buys the other, a la Sirius and XM in the satellite radio business — but you’re probably going to see it for a while. DraftKings, for instance, has promised to spend half a billion dollars on ads with ESPN and Fox Sports over the next few years.

And that’s real money, even by TV standards...."

DraftKings, via YouTube



Richard

 

[b2bailey]

I had never heard of FanDuel until this week when the ad kept coming up on a movie I was watching. My first thought was it is a bad thing. Reminds me of another type of entertainment that was only available to people who went OUT of their homes. To be able to LOSE money from the comfort of your home -- I'm imagining lots of grocery dollars being wasted on this.

 

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DraftKings and FanDuel Face Questions About 'Insider Trading' - by Richard Lawler/ engadget.com

"Massive ad campaigns have made the rise of daily fantasy hard to ignore, but maybe there's one thing that could put the brakes on the likes of FanDuel and DraftKings: scandal. The issue seems to have started with a forum thread on Rotogrinder calling out "Millionaire Maker" information posted early by a DraftKings employee. Usually, that info is not available until after games start because its impact on each football player's value could help someone set up their roster, and it's come under more scrutiny since that same employee won $350,000 in the same week on competing site FanDuel. Now players wonder who has access to what information, when, and if they're using it to gain an edge by playing on rival daily fantasy sites. DraftKings and FanDuel have responded to the controversy with a joint statement, which is included after the break...."

Richard

 

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DraftKings and FanDuel on Defensive Over Insider Betting Revelations - from Reuters/ Sport Betting/ The Guardian/ theguardian.com

"DraftKings and FanDuel, the two major US sports fantasy companies, defended their businesses’ integrity on Monday after an employee released insider information and then placed winning bets in the unregulated industry worth billions.

The statement came after a DraftKings manager admitted he inadvertently released data on National Football League fantasy teams and won $350,000 on FanDuel the same week, the New York Times reported...."




Richard

 

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SEC Network Bans Ads for DraftKings and FanDuel Citing Gambling Concerns - by Bryan Armen Graham/ NFL/ The Guardian/ theguardian.com

"The SEC Network will no longer air commercials for DraftKings and FanDuel, with the league’s commissioner declaring the daily fantasy sports games to represent “a form of gambling”.

The news was first reported by WVTM-TV, an NBC affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama.

“Is it a form of gambling, is it a form of skill game, and I think there is some question about that,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told WVTM. “And I think the appropriate place for us to land as a conference on the SEC Network, again working with ESPN, is not to include that advertising on the SEC Network moving forward.”...

Richard

 

[am1]

No doubt gambling. Never been interested in fantasy leagues. I have put money on a few games but do not care for it either.

 

[Elan]

So I've belonged to DraftKings for a couple weeks now. Amazingly fun and addictive if you're into sports. Yes, it's gambling. And, yes, there are undoubtedly insiders that have an advantage. But that doesn't preclude one from winning money.
In many ways DFS is just like the stock market. Legalized gambling where the insiders get rich and the little guys can do OK if they understand enough to ride the big guy's coattails.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[geekette]

Hard not to notice the nonstop FanDuel promotions, tho I have not seen DraftKings, didn't know it existed until the SEC dust-up.

I think the ads need something like lottery commercials have, something like, "please gamble responsibly" or even small print disclosure that winning is not guaranteed. Far too many people believe the "win every week" part but do not consider losing. So long as enrolling trots out all the downsides, risks, warnings, no problem for me. I'm concerned about too many sheep being led to fleece room but if everything is out in the open, well, it's their right to spend their money any way they wish. I think there will be problems when some underage folks either win or lose big and hit the radar.

I, personally, think it's a dangerous trend for those who get addicted to it and really don't have the money to lose, but that's an issue of personal responsibility. Seems to still be legal, so why not.

 

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DraftKings and FanDuel Face Class Action Suit Over 'Insider Information' - by Jan Wieczner/ Tech/ Fantasy Sports/ Fortune/ fortune.com

"A class action complaint accuses DraftKings and FanDuel of making “false and misleading advertisements of fair play.”

Following a week of media criticism and regulatory scrutiny over whether employees of fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel received an unfair betting advantage, a class action lawsuit was filed Thursday accusing the companies of fraud and false representations...."

Photograph by Andrew Harrer — Bloomberg via Getty Images


Richard

 

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Where Fantasy Sports Meets Stock Market Scams - by Max Ridlin-Nadler/ Fantasy Sports/ New Republic/ newrepublic.com

"The first month of the 2015 NFL season has been characterized by an onslaught of advertising for daily fantasy sports betting. Viewers have sat helplessly by as their normal football-watching experience (usually typified by beer and pizza advertisements, with occasional interruptions of extreme violence and holding penalties) was overwhelmed by a seemingly unending succession of pitches by the two titans of the daily fantasy industry: FanDuel and DraftKings.

These two companies have already aired over 60,000 commercials promising ridiculous payouts to the layman bettor this year. Both have benefited from tremendous institutional backing from the sports they were profiting off of (as well as the networks they were buying ad-time on). And both have also seen a massive surge in users, as football fans caved to the demands of their televisions, which were promising special one-time offers, complimentary credits to gamble with, and perhaps, millions and millions of dollars in winnings. The rules of daily fantasy football are simple: participants have a fixed budget that they can spend on any combination of football players, with the hope that their roster scores more fantasy points (which are based on individual statistics) than anyone else in their “pool.” The size and prizes of each pool differ on how much money the player is willing to buy-in for..."


Richard

 

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Cash Drops and Keystrokes: The Dark Reality of Sports Betting and Daily Fantasy Games - By Walt Bogdanish, James Glanz and Agustin Armendariz/ Interactive/ International New York Times/ The New York Times/ nytimes.com


"In a narrow doorway on Fifth Avenue, a short cab ride from the brand-name stores selling luxury and cachet to the wealthy, a man with the street name Mr. Gold handed a shopping bag to a woman in casual clothes.

The bag contained $350,000 in cash, proceeds from an illegal Internet gambling ring.

This shadowy exchange in June 2012 was remarkable for two reasons: The bag contained $350,000 in cash, proceeds from an illegal Internet gambling ring; and the woman who took it was a New York real estate developer and prominent gay rights activist who has donated nearly a quarter of a million dollars to political candidates and causes. The previous month, the same woman — Joy Tomchin — accepted another bag with $335,000 in cash.

In both cases, Ms. Tomchin said she had taken the cash on behalf of her brother, Stanley, who prosecutors say helped run the kind of gambling operation that has proved so difficult to stop: old-style bookmakers and money collectors, assisted by modern technology that enables offshore computers to record sports bets and payouts, illegal in the United States, beyond the reach of American law enforcement..."

Richard

 

[Bucky]

Draft kings and FanDuel shut down in Nevada

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/10/15/daily-fantasy-sports-sites-ordered-to-shut-down-in-nevada/

 

[Elan]

It's strange to me that online stock trading is so readily accepted, yet DFS is viewed as unethical or immoral. There's probably more transparency in DFS than there is in the market, and there's roughly an equal amount of skill involved in picking "winners" in either venue.

There's a lot of interest in DFS, not just by the players, but by the sports leagues and the networks. It drives interest in the on field action, and effectively has become a sport of it's own, creating content for the networks. I can see DFS being more regulated, but it's going to be a tough fight to completely shut it down, IMO -- it's just too popular and there's too much money at stake for multiple parties.

 

[bogey21]

I did DraftKings last year and I'd advise you to be prepared. There is a skill involved with picking the right combination of players and I ended up quickly losing my money. I spend about $1000 every year on normal Fantasy Football (through CBS and Yahoo leagues), and usually win at least what I put in, so I am not a novice. Perhaps when I have more time I may try it again, but just realize you're playing against pros who seem to know what they're doing.

Agree 100%. I do not play but have watched those who do. The winners work hard at it and use a large body of knowledge they have accumulated. It is way more than a game of chance.

George

 

[geekette]

It's strange to me that online stock trading is so readily accepted, yet DFS is viewed as unethical or immoral. There's probably more transparency in DFS than there is in the market, and there's roughly an equal amount of skill involved in picking "winners" in either venue.

The two things are not at all the same. Stock market is about owning businesses while this discussion is about betting on athletes and teams, there is no ownership involved, it's simple speculation.

I'm not sure where the stain of sports gambling came from as it's been around a long time. I never really thought about it until the Pete Rose debacle.

But please don't equate poring over balance sheets and P/L statements with rushing yards or sacks against last week's opponent.

 

[ace2000]

The two things are not at all the same. Stock market is about owning businesses while this discussion is about betting on athletes and teams, there is no ownership involved, it's simple speculation.

I'm not sure where the stain of sports gambling came from as it's been around a long time. I never really thought about it until the Pete Rose debacle.

But please don't equate poring over balance sheets and P/L statements with rushing yards or sacks against last week's opponent.

Sports speculation and stock market speculation are both considered gambling by many, and rightfully so. A lot of the stock market "gamblers" do not pore over balance sheets and statements, but simply "invest" on charts. It all depends on how you want to define the word gambling.

 

[VegasBella]

The two things are not at all the same. Stock market is about owning businesses while this discussion is about betting on athletes and teams, there is no ownership involved, it's simple speculation.

I'm not sure where the stain of sports gambling came from as it's been around a long time. I never really thought about it until the Pete Rose debacle.

But please don't equate poring over balance sheets and P/L statements with rushing yards or sacks against last week's opponent.

Ummm, have you heard of Day Trading? Or High Frequency Trading?

There are lots of ways to profit from stock market investments without the investment being long-term ownership of companies. There are strategies smart people can use to profit from buying and selling stocks that are more based on speculation of the behaviors of others who play the market than they are on the behaviors of the owned companies. Whether or not the companies will be successful is not relevant. The short term behaviors of other investors IS.

Furthermore, the WINNERS at any form of gambling ARE literally poring over data about the game and their opponents. They track their own data and they look over their own P/L statements to improve their game. Those who don't do that are losers. The people who are winning at Daily Fantasy Sports are spending hours and hours developing a game strategy to beat their opponents. It has very little to do with the actual sport being bet on, it's about the game theory and the way other bettors play. The winners are poker players and chess players - they are game strategists. They are not football fans who want to speculate.

 

[Elan]

The two things are not at all the same. Stock market is about owning businesses while this discussion is about betting on athletes and teams, there is no ownership involved, it's simple speculation.

I'm not sure where the stain of sports gambling came from as it's been around a long time. I never really thought about it until the Pete Rose debacle.

But please don't equate poring over balance sheets and P/L statements with rushing yards or sacks against last week's opponent.

Given my extensive experience in both (~30 years of stock, mf's, etf's, puts, calls, straddles, spreads, etc and sports gambling), I'll stick with my comparison.

Your comments lead me to believe that you think the stock market is far more transparent than it really is. I work for a Fortune 200ish size company. Believe me when I state that there are so many legal accounting tricks corporations can play that earnings reports and balance sheets are no more telling than a box score. I'm not even factoring in the amount of manipulation of individual stocks that takes place by institutions and media. And, as was mentioned, many highly successful online traders have never looked at a balance sheet or P/L statement.

If you want to believe that you're getting crystal clear insight into a company's finances by looking at balance sheets and financial statements, and that there's only one way to profit from the stock market, that's you're prerogative. As I said, I'll stick with my comparison, because it's quite appropriate.