As daily fantasy sports has blossomed into a multibillion-dollar industry in the past year, DraftKings and FanDuel have become cherished sponsors of M.L.B. and N.F.L. franchises.
Eilers Research, which studies the industry, estimates that daily games will generate around $2.6 billion in entry fees this year and grow 41 percent annually, reaching $14.4 billion in 2020. So high are the potential financial rewards that DraftKings and FanDuel have found eager partners in N.F.L. teams, even as league executives remain staunch opponents of sports betting.
Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and Robert K. Kraft of the New England Patriots have stakes in DraftKings, which recently struck a three-year deal with the N.F.L. to become a partner of the league’s International Series in Britain, where sports betting is legal. In addition, DraftKings has tapped hundreds of millions of dollars from Fox Sports, and FanDuel has raised similar amounts from investors like Comcast, NBC and KKR.
I find it interesting that ProFootballFocus no longer offers their "premium statistics" to anyone other than NFL franchises. I've quoted their findings numerous times here with information such as Dalton's pass-breakdowns when under pressure over the last four games, or Gio's specific ability to pick up the blitz over the last three games, or Kevin Zeitler's improved performance in run-blocking over the last two games, etc., etc., etc. That information is gone. Gone to me. Gone to Rotoworld. Gone to ESPN. Gone to anyone other than the 19 NFL teams that are paying them for it right now.
Why? There's got to be something more to it than just 19 teams wanting to keep the information away from the other 13 teams. That makes zero sense. What makes sense is if the DraftKings and FanDuel, through the $100M dollars they are paying NFL teams for advertising, got the NFL to put the screws to PFF so that the information wouldn't be available to potential DraftKings and FanDuel players.