With the launch of Daily Fantasy in the UK, a market where gambling is already legal, could this mean that daily fantasy will struggle to break into a market that is flooded with sports betting?
There is a big difference, as daily fantasy sports offer an alternative to sports betting, and there is much more of a personal attachment and sense of accomplishment with fantasy when a person constructs their own team and backs it with their own money as opposed to simply betting on a team to win. Sean Koerner, Director of Predictive Analytics at STATS, believes this will really help the product grow in popularity in the UK, as well as other counties:
“Due to the nature of constructing a team for Daily Fantasy as opposed to betting on a line set by the sports betting market, a user actually has more control over their outcome when playing Daily Fantasy. This is why it is still considered a game of ‘skill’ as opposed to ‘gambling’. It’s true that any given night anything can happen, but over the long-run the more experienced players tend to win more times than not, which is very appealing to people that are experts in a particular sport.”
For fans of accumulators, Daily Fantasy will certainly have appeal as an alternative to betting. Accumulators require more luck with each additional selection to the bet, but could turn a small amount of money into a large prize, in some ways mirroring the Daily Fantasy model potential. Furthermore, the current market trends suggest a hunger for fantasy in the UK. Season-long fantasy is already growing, with three million people playing the Premier League’s fantasy product alone and 8.5 million season-long fantasy players in total. Corey Schwartz, analyst and daily fantasy sports expert, highlights the appeal of daily fantasy over traditional fantasy games.
“Part of the appeal of daily fantasy sports versus season-long fantasy is the ability to commit just as much time as you want, on your own schedule. If you’re going on vacation, planning a wedding, etc, you can simply choose not to play on certain days. In season-long you can be ‘stuck’ with an underperforming team, DFS gives you a brand new opportunity every day or week.”
Of course, as Daily Fantasy increases in popularity in the UK, the industry as a whole will grow as fans search for information to fuel their decisions. This will give media companies in Great Britain the opportunity to enter the fantasy landscape with content, much like is already done with betting. Daily fantasy sports’ export to the United Kingdom offers great potential, for both players of the game and the media alike.
New to Daily Fantasy Sports? Download our ebook ‘An Introduction to Daily Fantasy Sports’ here, and Sean Koerner and Corey Schwartz will be hosting a DFS webinar on March 8th, which you can sign up to here.
