DraftKings Busy with Strategic AFL Partnership

The world of fantasy sports should be set to grow in the coming months after a subdued period and in recognition of this, one of the market leaders has enjoyed a busy week, setting up a strategic partnership as the business develops.

DraftKings are arguably the most popular provider worldwide and the operator has announced two deals as it moves forward in this interesting area of the market.

Fine Details

In this contract, DraftKings has announced a partnership with the North American Arena Football League (AFL) and there are a number of aspects to the arrangement which will benefit both parties.

The AFL is a growth league in the US and its profile will be helped by DraftKings who will be streaming live games from the division via the operator’s mobile app. In return, the fantasy sports provider will gain exposure from the fans of the clubs involved as it becomes established as an official marketing partner.

Finally, as a special endorsement of this deal, DraftKings will develop a unique fantasy game based on the AFL which will then be included in its overall package.

Powerful

As the announcement was made, Dratfkings’ Chief Business Officer Ezra Kucharz stated:

Combining daily fantasy and live streaming is a powerful combination for providing compelling content for our customers.

We are confident that our customers will enjoy the fast pace of AFL games and the new daily fantasy sport contests the sport allows us to offer.

While DraftKings signed off on the deal, the AFL have been particularly busy and alongside their contract with the fantasy sports provider, they have also confirmed partnerships with SportRadar, Facebook and VSin (the Vegas Stats and Information Network).

The partnerships we’re announcing today give fans a whole new range of ways to get in on the action of arena football

said Ron Jaworski, Chairman of the AFL Executive Committee.

Today, we’re bringing fans even closer to the game by giving them access to more data, creating more intensity in each individual moment of the game and introducing some cutting-edge gaming options.

Exciting Times

The AFL are the busiest partner and tend to dominate the story in some areas but this is a significant move for the world of Fantasy Sports as a whole. We were told in the news quite recently that DraftKings were actively looking for partners and this is the first step on that particular journey and we should expect to see more developments in the weeks and months that lie ahead.

This particular sector of the industry came along a few years ago and looked likely to follow eSports in becoming one of the biggest growth areas in iGaming but issues with regulations and the merger saga between DraftKings and FanDuel has helped to slow things down to an extent.

After a period of calm, things should now start to move again at a rapid pace and this partnership between DraftKings and the AFL can only help to raise the profile of the operator and also the wider world of Fantasy Sports.