FanDuel Becomes Official One-Day Fantasy Partner of the NBA
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–November 12, 2014–
FanDuel and the National Basketball Association (NBA) today announced an exclusive multiyear partnership that will make FanDuel the official one-day fantasy partner of the NBA. The new partnership is the NBA’s first in one-day fantasy and FanDuel’s first strategic partnership with a major professional sports league.
As part of the partnership, FanDuel will unveil the first “Official One-Day Fantasy Basketball Game of the NBA,” that will be free to all fans on NBA.com and FanDuel.com. The official one-day fantasy game will allow fans in the U.S. to draft their own fantasy NBA team based on teams playing that day, and compete against others for daily NBA prizes which will include regular-season tickets, unique NBA experiences, NBA merchandise and memorabilia.
“Our new one-day fantasy game with FanDuel provides our fans with another way to connect with their favorite teams and players throughout the season,” said NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum. “FanDuel has established itself as the leader in the marketplace and the new game will be a great addition to our overall fantasy offerings.”
“The NBA-FanDuel partnership creates a dynamic opportunity to engage millions of NBA fans on a second screen throughout basketball season,” said Nigel Eccles, CEO of FanDuel. “Before this partnership, FanDuel was already on track to have more than 1.1 million active users in 2014, and we believe this partnership will further accelerate our growth and impact on the broader sports entertainment industry.”
Throughout the NBA season, the NBA Official One-Day Fantasy Basketball Game will be promoted through NBA assets including NBA TV, NBA.com, and NBA Mobile, along with broadcast partners ABC/ESPN and TNT.
The partnership will include the NBA having an equity stake in FanDuel. Additionally, FanDuel will work with select NBA teams and has already developed integrated strategic marketing partnerships with five individual teams to further their commitment to basketball fans across the country. The team partnerships to date include the Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks and Orlando Magic.
About the NBA
The NBA is a global sports and media business built around three professional sports leagues: the National Basketball Association, the Women’s National Basketball Association, and the NBA Development League. The league has established a major international presence with offices in 13 markets worldwide, games and programming in 215 countries and territories in 47 languages, and NBA merchandise for sale in more than 125,000 stores in 100 countries on 6 continents. NBA rosters at the start of the 2014-15 season featured a record 101 international players from 37 countries and territories. NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, which is available in 60 million U.S. homes, and NBA.com, which recorded 26.9 billion page views during the 2013-14 season, with more than half of all visitors originating from outside of North America. The NBA is the No. 1 professional sports league on social media, with more than 700 million likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms. Through NBA Cares, the league and its teams and players have donated more than $242 million to charity, completed more than 3 million hours of hands-on community service, and created more than 915 places where kids and families can live, learn, or play.
About FanDuel
FanDuel is the leading one-day fantasy sports company that is transforming the world of fantasy sports with an exciting new way to play. Since 2009 FanDuel has taken the one-day fantasy sports concept from launch to paying out over $10 million in prizes every week, and growing. New public and private leagues form daily and range in size from two to thousands of players. Buy-ins start at $1 and payouts happen immediately after games end. Based in New York City with an office in Edinburgh, Scotland, FanDuel is venture backed and has raised $88 million in funding to date from investors including Shamrock Capital, NBC Sports Ventures, KKR, Comcast Ventures, Pentech Ventures, Piton Capital and Bullpen Capital. For more information, visit www.fanduel.com or download the iPhone app in the Appstore.
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Media Contacts
NBA
John Acunto, 212-407-8255
jacunto@nba.com
or
FanDuel
Justine Sacco, 516-554-5666
justine@fanduel.com
