Last week, FanDuel reached a long-term commercial partnership with Diamond Sports for the exclusive right to name the media company’s regional sports networks (RSNs). As part of the deal, FanDuel has naming rights to Diamond’s portfolio of 16 RSNs that provide access to new markets nationwide.
On the latest episode of iGaming Daily, Jessica Welman, Editor of SBC Americas, was joined by Charlie Horner, SBC’s Media Manager, to delve deeper into the deal.
Diamond was previously the operator of Bally’s Sports brand and holds rights to broadcast more than 35 pro sports teams across hockey, basketball and baseball.
Jess explained that many feel that Bally’s did not make the most of its partnership with Diamond Sports and the duo considered what success would look like for FanDuel as its replacement.
Charlie said: “I think it is just about getting the brand out in front of as many sports fans as possible. You want to see a little bit of an uptick in terms of maybe first-time depositors and getting new people to sign up for the app.
“They are in this incredibly competitive race against DraftKings in a lot of these states and they want to be number one. A lot of this will just be about marketing and getting the brand in people’s faces.”
Jess agreed, and added that she believes that FanDuel is “trying to be ESPN” and become “the place where fans go for sports”.
After a short break, the attention then turned to the affiliate sector where XLMedia has exited the game, selling its North American domains to Sportradar in a deal that could be worth up to $30m.
On the decision, Jess said: “Earlier this year, [XLMedia] ditched their European and Canadian assets to go all in on North America and going all in backfired. It’s such a tough spot to be in.
“There was a gold rush for a long time of new states opening up which meant a flood of people and there was plenty of room for everyone to prosper. Now we’re reaching the point where we’ve got all of the people that knew this was coming and wanted to be involved. So how do [they] access the rest of the country?”
Despite this being the case, Jess explained that there is still optimism for the North American affiliate sector.
She recounted a conversation she had with Jeremy Levine, CEO and Founder of Underdog Fantasy, who explained that only 6% of the US population are on regulated betting accounts, therefore, it isn’t a case of there are no players out there, it is that affiliates “haven’t cracked how to get them”.
This point raised the question of whether Sportradar has the capability to access the untapped potential of the market.
“Sportradar is a well-known sports tech and data supplier and they have odds feeds and all these kinds of things,” explained Charlie.
“They also have a marketing solutions product called Ads and I think that XLMedia’s US assets acquisition is going to integrate with the Ads solution. Sportradar is big on utilising data and analytics and trying to work AI into that.
“I think they believe that they can use their models and data to their advantage and be a big player on the affiliate scene.”
