Brief:
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FanDuel, the fantasy sports platform that is an official marketing partner of the National Basketball Association, introduced several games and contests for the holiday season on its app and website, per a statement. Its NBA InPlay real-time mobile fantasy game syncs directly to any NBA game on cable or satellite TV.
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After downloading the app, a smartphone user picks players for a fantasy team and plays alongside the live broadcast to maximize their score. NBA InPlay app users can compete against friends or other NBA fans to win official NBA prizes. NBA InPlay is free to download on Apple iOS and Android.
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FanDuel also integrated its mobile app with NBA League Pass, the sports TV service that shows all NBA games. FanDuel’s “Live Scoring” section has a “Watch Now” button to see hundreds of live and on-demand games on NBA League Pass.
Insight:
Fantasy sports services, which are estimated to be a $7 billion industry, are embracing mobile technologies to keep pace with consumers who are migrating away from desktop browsing to follow sports news and to manage their fantasy teams. FanDuel and its rival DraftKings have taken steps to keep players engaged with such offerings as daily fantasy sports that let people create teams for shorter periods than an entire season.
Professional basketball is an especially fast-growing category because it offers 1,230 games a season, compared with 256 for the National Football League. FanDuel’s revenue from NBA contests surpassed NFL contests last year, FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles told Yahoo! Finance. DraftKings also estimated the NBA will surpass the NFL this season.
FanDuel is making a bigger push with its NBA programming going into the holidays. The company’s “NBA Starting 5” contest is a free-to-play game that lets people select which professional players they want in a starting lineup. In addition, the “NBA Starting 5 Christmas Jam” contest on Christmas gives people a chance to win signed NBA merchandise or tickets to games.
