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The National Hockey League has just entered into a multi-year exclusive deal with one of the world’s largest daily fantasy sports contest sites, DraftKings.com. The agreement calls for DraftKings.com to become the official daily fantasy sports site of the NHL.
The term of the deal is officially two years in length, but executives at the NHL say they expect the new business relationship to last in perpetuity.
DraftKings.com will be permitted to use the NHL’s digital platforms and other intellectual properties.
“The leagues have great fan bases and users that are obviously great for fantasy and for us to tap into,” said Jeremy Elbaum, Vice-President of Business Development at DraftKings. ”The leagues understand that their users want more options for fantasy. The experiences we have been able to develop with Major League Baseball and now the NHL, such as winning tickets to the Winter Classic and Stanley Cup are so unique and cool. In general, the leagues make sense for us to align ourselves with, because they have the ability to speak to their fans and get them to play daily fantasy. The uniqueness is the money-cant-buy experiences that users can win.”
DraftKings.com has already entered into sponsorship deals with the individual NHL clubs and the National Football League’s New England Patriots.
“It authenticates the game; it authenticates the experience when two brands align themselves like we are,” said Keith Wachtel, NHL Executive Vice President of Global Partnerships about the NHL’s new relationship with DraftKings. ”It legitimizes and authenticates what they’re doing when we are endorsing the product and saying to our fans ‘play there . . . that’s the place you should play, because it’s a fun experience.
“The reason why we went with DraftKings is that from the minute we had the conversations with them they embraced the NHL no differently than our big partners embrace the NHL,” explained Wachtel. ”They wanted to ingrain themselves into the fabric of the sport and quite frankly the business model that we’ve developed, which is really around media and big events, and when we had the conversations with DraftKings, that’s what intrigued them. In addition to all the content that we are embedding DraftKings in across the league, they are supporting the Winter Classic, All-Star Game, Stadium Series and the NHL Awards in Las Vegas. They are using those events like Pepsi does, Bridgestone does and Coors Light does. It’s rare that you get in sponsorships partners that are organic to the sport.”
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
