If it feels like you can't watch a game these days without being inundated with commercials from DraftKings or FanDuel, there's a reason: Those two entities have spent a boatload of money promoting the business of one-week (and in some cases one-day) fantasy sports games.
A Wall Street Journal report last week noted that since Aug. 1, Draft-Kings has spent a whopping $81 million on TV ads that appeared 22,000 times (both figures are surely higher since a week has passed). FanDuel has spent another $20 million in that time span.
It got a few of us around here thinking: just what are these sites all about, anyway? What's the appeal? How are they making enough money to afford such a media blitz? So I decided to sign up for DraftKings.com, plunking down $50 with the Star Tribune's blessing so I could share my fantasy experience. Here's what I can report so far after signing up this past Saturday:
• DraftKings is a smart concept and does one thing in particular incredibly well: it's exceedingly easy to use. Within two minutes of signing up Saturday, I was picking a lineup for a one-day fantasy baseball game (normal cost $3 but free to me for signing up). Not long after that, I was mulling over a $20 NFL contest with a grand prize of $2 million and an overall prize pool of $10 million. That's big money. I had to go for it.
A certain percentage of players in each contest finish in the money, adding to the lure. The overall numbers work in DraftKings' favor, obviously, but they're banking on this: Virtually everyone who plays fantasy sports has a certain ego when picking a team that makes them believe they have some secret knowledge that will allow them to triumph.
• I immediately understood the seduction, even as I hated myself. I must have checked the $10 million contest a dozen times Sunday while completely ignoring my other "traditional" fantasy leagues. A good 5 minutes was wasted as I daydreamed about what would happen if I won – and the ethical implications of doing so while signed up ostensibly as a work assignment.
As it turned out, I had nothing to worry about — I finished in 337,358th place out of more than 400,000 entries.
• I still don't understand how this is legal while betting on the outcome of a game in a similar format is not. At the very least, there's a gray area here that DraftKings and FanDuel are taking advantage of for the time being.
