Dive Brief:
- Sports TV broadcasters are in the midst of gold rush of ad dollars coming in from fantasy draft websites.
- Over a one-week period early this month, one company spent over $21 million in TV ads.
- ESPN in particular is cashing in on this advertising bonanza.
Dive Insight:
If you’ve watched any sports broadcasts on network TV or spent any time with ESPN lately you probably noticed there has been a deluge of fantasy draft websites ads. That is no accident, and those sites are spending a massive amount of money to make sure their brand and URL is seared into viewers’ memories. One fantasy draft website, DraftKings.com, spent $21.3 million between Sept. 3 and Sept. 9 spreading that around ESPN, the “big four” broadcasters, FS1, NBCSN and CBS Sports Network. ESPN alone was on the receiving end of 45% of that week’s spending.
An anonymous ad sales chief was quoted in an Ad Age article, saying, "It's money that only a few years ago didn't exist. Fantasy in many ways may be responsible for keeping the interest in the NFL at these historic levels – you have guys who obsessively track their fantasy rosters and so are consuming more content than ever before – and at the same time, it's bringing in a lot of money on my end. … It's got a lot of juice."
