The overwhelming amount of advertising from DraftKings and FanDuel has become a running joke among sports fans and media this fall, as telecasts for NFL and college football games have been flooded with commercials from daily fantasy sports sites. Sponsorships have also been prevalent throughout ESPN programming and online content, in addition to MLB postseason coverage.
Obviously, we’re not imagining that these ads are everywhere. But just in case you were worried about that, reports have revealed just how much of an effort daily fantasy sports sites have put into blanketing the sports landscape with advertising, and how much of a financial investment that requires.
Thanks to sites like i.spot.tv and Legal Sports Report, we know that DraftKings spent $24 million on TV advertising on TV advertising in the first week of September, which happened to be the first week of the college football season and led into Week 1 of the NFL schedule. That was more money than any other company spent that week. More than AT&T, which has all those smartphones and plans to sell. More than Warner Brothers, which has movies to promote. Even more than GEICO — and that gecko seems to be everywhere.
Cubs fans celebrating in the DraftKings Fantasy Sports Zone, TBS tells us.
— Dustin Gouker (@DustinGouker) October 8, 2015
But that was not a one-week spike for daily fantasy sports advertising. Of course, you know that because you watch sports on TV and scan the internet for good content. Yet if you were seeking confirmation of that, if you want a number to put on it so you can sound smart about this stuff at the watercooler, bar and parties, more details have been revealed.
Once again, i.spot.tv has been tracking TV advertising and their analytics have determined that both DraftKings and FanDuel have spent $205.9 million on national ad campaigns on network and cable broadcasts this year. That covers a span from January until Oct. 5, when reports of leaks and insider trading suspicions first became public knowledge and called the integrity of daily fantasy sports games into question.
Broken down further, the two DFS sites spent more money on advertising from Aug. 16 through the opening weekend of the NFL season than the entire beer industry, of which several companies have million-dollar partnerships with TV networks and the NFL.
DraftKings has spent $131.4 million on TV ads, resulting in a total of 40,283 airings — including 7,282 on ESPN — on national TV broadcasts. FanDuel has invested $74.5 million on its campaigns for 21, 545 airings, 5.644 of which ran on ESPN.
That doesn’t figure to change much with the ad deal DraftKings has with ESPN. But the network says it’s removing sponsored content from shows such as SportsCenter, NFL Live and Monday Night Football. We’ll see if that continues into a big weekend of college football and Week 5 of the NFL season. Never mind that plenty of DFS ads will also run on TBS, FS1 and MLB Network during the Division Series round of the MLB playoffs through next week.
[CNN]