With most of its battles in state legislatures on hold for the summer, DraftKings announced a new partnership agreement with the Canadian Football league.
The deal represents a first for DraftKings with a Canadian league, though the site does have an existing relationship with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd., which owns the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors and MLS’s Toronto FC.
The alliance means the CFL will be featured on a major DFS site for the first time.
DraftKings currently has several free-to-play contests that offer tickets to CFL games as prizes. The company said in a press release that “the CFL will be fully integrated across DraftKings digital properties, including online and mobile”, and that the contests will be a visible presence “across the league’s media and promotional platforms.”
DraftKings also began offering paid contests for the league’s opening week, which started June 23. The partnership is initially for just the 2016 season, but could evolve into a long-term deal, the release said.
The move comes after reports surfaced that DraftKings’ launch in the UK have not been gaining traction in the competitive gambling market there. The Associated Press quoted several UK analysts that said DraftKings has gotten off to a slow start since launching in Britain in February.
“They have had virtually no traction whatsoever,” David Copeland, CEO at SuperLobby.com, a United Kingdom-based website that tracks betting activity on daily fantasy sports sites told the AP. “The casual UK bettor has probably never heard of DraftKings.”
Jeffrey Haas, DraftKings’ London-based chief international officer, however, disputed the assessment by analysts.
“We’re getting a very favorable response,” he told the AP, though he declined to provide data or documents to support the claim. “I can’t quantify that specifically, but from a trend perspective, it’s going in the right direction for us.”
Haas said “tens of thousands” of new U.K. players have already signed up and the Boston-based company remains on track to meet its target of enrolling about 100,000 new players in its first year.
Chris Grove, a Las Vegas-based gambling industry analyst, told the AP that said the legal debate over daily fantasy sports in more than 30 U.S. states may have has tied up financial resources and prevented DraftKings from a major advertising or marketing blitz in the UK. That put the site well behind UK-based sports betting companies that market extensively..
Haas says DraftKings’ marketing efforts are largely focused on securing partnerships with popular UK soccer clubs, including Arsenal and Liverpool, in order to build “authenticity and credibility” in the competitive gambling market. The company also has a promotional agreement with one of London’s largest newspapers, the Daily Telegraph.
Haas said the company remains committed to growing its UK presence and that the “big test” will be August’s start of the massively popular English Premier League.
Rival daily fantasy sports operator FanDuel has also announced plans to enter the UK in time for the Premier League season.
