DraftKings starting in this year’s first quarter hopes to offer U.S. and Canadian-based customers the ability to livestream EuroLeague games on the DraftKings app for those playing in a $3 and above DraftKings contests.
“I think what specifically DraftKings players really want is a one-stop shop where if you’re playing fantasy, you don’t want to have to hop around to necessarily five or six different places to consume the game content,” DraftKings co-founder and chief revenue officer Matt Kalish explained on the SportTechie podcast with Bram Weinstein.
“So we really focused a lot on, ‘How do we sort of diversify our content offering and make sure that players have as much of a one-stop shop as possible with DraftKings?’ And it’s not going to be something that we solve overnight. It’s going to be a process.”
DraftKings’ first attempt on bringing livestreaming onto its platform is expected to be just the start.
“I think it’s the sort of thing that sports fans really want,” Kalish said. “Like they don’t want to have to get eight different subscriptions to a bunch of different products and you’re going off to NBA League Pass on one spot and NFL RedZone and all these different places. So if we can really bring all that together for our players, it’s something that increases the experience tremendously for them. And I think the leagues, teams — everybody — media companies see the value in providing a great experience at least for the fans and players. So it’s something that we’re really working on actively and something that we’re really passionate about trying to chip away at over time.”
Rival daily fantasy sports company FanDuel in fact has already looked to incorporate NBA League Pass streaming onto its mobile app. It announced ahead of a slate of high-profile Christmas Day games that in the “Live Scoring” section of the app, fans and NBA League Pass subscribers could click a “Watch Now” button and be directed to watch games.
Last year, FanDuel also announced that TuneIn would be its exclusive streaming audio partner, enabling fans to be connected with live audio game broadcasts related to their FanDuel activity with a “TuneIn Button” on the FanDuel platform.
“We are dedicated to elevating the game-day experience for sports fans and making that experience more immersive on our platform,” Mike Pine, FanDuel’s Head of Integrated Partnerships, said in a statement. “Content and sports go hand-in-hand and this partnership represents our first big step to bring live sports content directly into the fantasy sports environment.”