Sports is perhaps the most “DVR proof” type of programming there is. You can’t skip the commercials during live sports, because you want to live in the moment with everybody else who’s a fan of your team. Therefore, the ads that run during sporting events have a much greater impact and reach than the promotional spots which air during taped programming.
During commercial breaks of sporting events, and all sports programming for that matter, daily fantasy sports promos are pervasive. Everywhere you look it’s Draftkings this and FanDuel that. Especially now with NFL season ready to kick off. As Bob Costas famously put it, at a time when everything else is in niches, the NFL cuts across all barriers.
With a massive advertising blitzkrieg in advance of the NFL season, kicking off Thursday, DraftKings assumed the #1 position of all advertising this week. The daily fantasy sports league provider spent just over $24 million this week. With 6,749 national airings, the reason it seems like their ads are ubiquitous is because they truly are ubiquitous.
AT&T was second in ad spending ($23.5 million, 4,147 airings) and Warner Brothers came in third ($17.1m, 3,065 airings)
For more on fantasy sports and daily fantasy leagues check out Allie Fontana of The Fantasy Fix. She does a weekly spot on our podcast. Here’s her most recent segment:
Daily Fantasy Sports is taking off right now because it fits in so perfectly well with today’s society of instant gratification. No one wants to stay so-called “locked in” to an entire season. We all need our fix now, not later. Attention spans are shorter than ever and resolution of all issues can never come quick enough.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 the Zone.
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