By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
There are problems within the daily fantasy sports industry, and ESPN is reportedly getting out of the business as soon as possible. The company and DraftKings have reportedly ended their exclusive ad deal.
ESPN has not released a comment yet. Last year, the company struck a deal with DraftKings to advertise in 2016. The ad deal was reportedly worth $250 million.
DraftKings last year ran commercials for the online fantasy sports during the NFL season. However, since the season ended, there’s been little information on the company in commercials.
According to the Wall Street Journal, ‘the end of the DraftKings exclusivity means that ESPN will now be able to sell ad time to DraftKings competitors.’
DraftKings and FanDuel are in a legal battle over whether they’re gambling or not. If they are gambling, then they would have to deal with gambling regulations and taxes — which they do not currently pay.
Seven attorney generals currently say that daily fantasy sports violate state gambling laws. This caused several credit card processing companies to stop handling transactions from these businesses.
Both major daily fantasy companies are spending heavily on legal fees — and that may have helped ESPN to leave their partnership. Also, another reason may have something to do with no commercials to get the word out about the companies besides during the football season.
In each daily fantasy company, the individual can create sports teams with real players in a league. These companies say that their ‘games’ are involving skill and are challenging, which is something different than what several attorney generals say in state court records.
