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Everybody is talking about the new commercial featuring New England Patriots starting quarterback Tom Brady donning a wig to take on the roll of a telemarketer. But Fortune.com is asking: “How did a little known fantasy app land the likes of a Tom Brady?”
The answer: Persistence and a UMich connection didn’t hurt.
“He does not make decisions lightly,” David Geller, CEO of TopLine Game Labs and the Daily Fantasy Sports app DailyMVP.com told Fortune. “We were in discussions with him for a very long time before he finally agreed to represent the DailyMVP brand.”
But as Fortune.com notes, Brady – unlike his counterparts Peyton Manning and Drew Brees – is especially choosy when it comes to endorsement deals. That aforementioned Manning and Brees appear in numerous commercial spots.
“With Tom, he had to be comfortable with the product but also with the quality of the team—he wanted to make sure that we weren’t just three guys in a garage trying to rope him in,” says Geller.
And with Geller came that credibility aspect. He headed up the long establishemd Yahoo Fantasy platform for many years.
It was also important to Brady, says Geller, that, “the games were accessible to everybody, and casual in nature, not games for hardcore gambling-type guys.”
Fortune notes that the big boys on the block – FanDuel.com and Draftkings.com – tend to target the more savvy, stats-driven fantasy player. DailyMVP.com is geared for the Average Joe.
Geller says his company’s technology can be used to create a quick, one-day fantasy games around anything from reality television to awards shows.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
