The crossing of daily fantasy sports, professional sports, and gambling keep growing by leaps and bounds. And continuing that trend, FanDuel recently announced that its FanDuel Sportsbook app will soon offer live streaming of up to two NHL Hockey games every day for the rest of the season.
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NHL Fans Can Watch the Game and Place Bets in One Easy Step on FanDuel App
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The innovative deal was made through a partnership with IMG Arena. IMG Arena has secured the right to furnish legal U.S. sports betting operators with NHL live streams.
The games can only be watched over the app in states where FanDuel’s app legally operates; right now, that includes New Jersey, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, but more will be added soon.
Live streams by legal sports betting operators are hot in the European market, as well as around the world. In 2019, more than 55 million unique viewers from around the world viewed more than 10.5 billion minutes of the content streamed by IMG Arena.
“As we continue to innovate and expand nationally, further enhancing both the live game and live betting experience is more and more important to our customers,” said Niall Connell, General Manager and Senior Vice President, FanDuel Group. “We want to become a one-stop-shop for all sports betting content, by live streaming professional sports such as hockey. That’s just one of the many ways FanDuel is reaching that goal.”
Unfortunately, the deal between FanDuel and IMG Arena is that blackouts will be applied to local teams as well as national broadcasts.
FanDuel’s Other Live Streamed Sports
While this is FanDuel’s first attempt at live streaming professional league sports in the U.S., it is not the first event live-streamed on its app.
Last year, FanDuel began live streaming soccer games and tennis matches in Europe on its FanDuel app in New Jersey. The Garden State is home to FanDuel’s market-leading retail sportsbook at the Meadowlands Racetrack.
At that time, FanDuel’s general manager Niall Connell predicted that live streaming those sports would probably double the number of bets on those games.
A spokesperson for Sportradar AG, FanDuel’s Swiss partner on the streaming of European events, noted that different time zones in the U.S. opens the door for gamblers to watch sporting events, and bet on them, both before and after American prime-time sporting events.
Meanwhile, IMG Arena also has partnered with the PGA Tour. In November 2018, the PGA announced an agreement to have IMG Arena provide the PGA Tour data to not only the sports media, but to media organizations worldwide. IMG Arena has also obtained the exclusive right to distribute selected live video as well as official data of PGA TOUR games to regulated, international sports gambling and gaming markets.
Fans viewing the live streamed games can also keep track of the live odds displayed on the screen. Constantly updating the odds on the app makes it easy for fans to place a bet without missing any of the game, rather than watching the game elsewhere.
Part of the benefit for FanDuel is that NHL fans will download the app to stream the games. From that point, FanDuel can cross-promote other types of sports betting, as well as its online casino games, horse racing, and Daily Fantasy Sports products. That type of “cross-pollination” made FanDuel millions in 2019, and they hope to continue that successful strategy. FanDuel reported that their online casino gaming revenue tripled in the fourth quarter of 2019, due to their practice of cross-selling.
As it stands, FanDuel’s innovative products and marketing strategy have put it at the top of the sports betting market.
$500
Welcome Package
* New customers only. 20% match bonus up to $500.
$500
Welcome Package
$500
Welcome Package
