The primary week of the NFL season is usually when curiosity in DraftKings and FanDuel is at an all-time excessive. And it’s a bellwether for the place the daily fantasy sportsbook business stands.
In 2015, all eyes had been on the 2 DFS operators as they accomplished huge funding rounds and spent tens of tens of millions on promoting. Final yr, the primary week featured an enormous quantity of overlay because the business was extra targeted on authorized points and regulatory considerations earlier in 2016.
In 2017, it may be argued that Week 1 needs to be the beginning of the brand new regular for the 2 websites as their focus has shifted away from a failed merger and the necessity for legality readability and day-to-say survival.
So the place does the business stand with the primary week of daily fantasy soccer within the books?
Income in NFL week 1 for DFS
In accordance with a sampling of the publicly viewable NFL Sunday Week 1 contests, each firms had been within the black by way of income for Week 1. The pattern included assured prize swimming pools (GPP) and non-guaranteed contests, however not head-to-head contests.
At DraftKings the income for that pattern clocked in at about USD1.3 million. At FanDuel, income for the same pattern was about USD700,000.
On condition that NFL week 1 typically means overlay (the place assured prizes exceed entry charges) in DFS-land, these are encouraging figures so far as getting contest sizing appropriate and basic liquidity. Final yr, the 2 websites had been normally placing up wherever from USD1.5 million to USD2.5 million in income for related samples every NFL Sunday, after Week 1.
The largest contests at each websites didn’t fill, and neither made cash for the websites individually. Within the DraftKings USD5.5 million Millionaire Maker, there have been greater than 273,000 entries (about 50,000 in need of filling) at a USD20 buy-in. In FanDuel’s USD4 million Sunday Million, there have been 560,000 entries (greater than 100,000 in need of filling) at a USD7 entry charge.
The largest DraftKings contest (USD1.4 million assured) based mostly on the Monday evening NFL video games fell effectively in need of filling and resulted in additional than USD100,000 of overlay, so it wasn’t all unicorns and rainbows.
The billion-dollar contest
The primary week additionally introduced with it an fascinating look into the DFS ecosystem.
The success or failure the DraftKings’ Excellent Lineup promotion — with a possible prize of a billion USD — depends upon the way you take a look at it.
The competition featured a prize pool of USD100,000 — with no entry charge. But it surely additionally promised a USD1 billion payout if anybody picked the highest-scoring participant at each place. This activity verges on the not possible.
The competition allowed for 5 million entries, but it surely obtained lower than 800,000. (Every consumer might enter solely as soon as.) Logic would dictate that each consumer at DraftKings ought to enter the competition, because it requires nearly no effort and a probably big payout.
Nonetheless, in response to communications for DraftKings, the promotion was not a superb measure of energetic gamers on the web site:
That assertion was backed up by an admittedly unscientific Twitter ballot, during which solely two out of three customers mentioned they might enter the competition:
The dearth of curiosity from current gamers would appear to point the perceived unlikelihood that anybody might probably hit the “good lineup.” Certainly, it’s believed nobody has ever hit on an ideal lineup at both DraftKings and FanDuel within the historical past of DFS. In any other case, the barrier to enter the billion-dollar contest was extraordinarily low.
Nonetheless, DraftKings claims 8 million complete customers and greater than 4 million of what it calls “energetic” customers. The 800,000 entries would appear to be a low determine provided that the promotion was supposed to usher in new customers and certain nonetheless attracted a considerable variety of the so-called actives.
Week 2 of daily fantasy soccer
Not shockingly, the 2 websites are scaling again a bit for his or her largest contests. DraftKings is guaranteeing USD5 million, and FanDuel USD3 million. DraftKings nonetheless has two different contests that assure USD1.6 million, whereas FanDuel’s second-biggest contest is USD750,000.
Within the present atmosphere for daily fantasy, the 2 websites are attempting to show they’ve the flexibility to generate significant income and nonetheless have the flexibility to scale. How profitable they’re at these two issues over the course of the ultimate quarter of 2017 will present perception into the trail ahead for DFS.