PGA Tour and DraftKings entered into a new business arrangement making the latter the “Official Daily Fantasy Game of the PGA Tour.” The content and marketing deal is a first DFS partnership for the PGA Tour. The Sports Techie community blog encourages the legal play of fantasy sports, both traditional and daily, check to see if your state allows it. This sports tech news was announced today from the PGA Tour’s Pointe Vedra Beach headquarters and DrafKing’s Boston HQ. I just played in DraftKings PGA $5K Dime Time at a cost of $0.10 during the 148th version of The Open Championship golf major tournament this past weekend won by Ireland’s own Shane Lowry at Royal Portrush in the UK pocketing me a cool $0.15 for placing 7,792. You don’t have to bet a ton of money to have fun, be entertained or to win with DFS as I proved. The key with golf is to make sure your golfers make the cut which is not an exact science but is classified as a ‘game of skill’ allowing DFS to be legalized and regulated on a state by state basis. If you only like participating in DFS for the Majors, the next one is the 2020 Masters at Augusta National only nine months away.
SportsBiz
The PGA TOUR changed its policy in February to enable Official Marketing Partnerships and title sponsorships with sports tech companies operating in the daily fantasy sports related industry paving the way for this exclusive DraftKings relationship to foster.
Luis Goicouria, PGA TOUR Senior Vice President Media, said, “The partnership with DraftKings provides the TOUR with a unique opportunity to innovate in a new industry and to further engage our fans.”
DraftKing will brand their DFS contests as “PGA TOUR DraftKings Fantasy Golf.” Cash prizes and a mix of PGA Tour-centric prizes are at stake in the near future for fans that enter to win.
“Our partnership with the PGA TOUR signals a mutual commitment to excellence in customer experience along with a new era in golf fandom and engagement,” said Ezra Kucharz, chief business officer of DraftKings.
Fan generated user data provided by DraftKings is of major importance and signifies the ‘Big Mo’ DFS has regarding fan engagement for the TOUR. Golf is ranked the fourth-most popular daily fantasy game on DraftKings platform trailing the NFL, NBA and MLB but above the NHL, soccer leagues such as the Premier League, NASCAR, and MMA/UFC.
Metrics show that more than 11 million golf fans have played at least one golf contest or 30 percent of the entire DraftKings customer base. Sponsors will of course love to know this remarkable stat.
Beginning in 2015, 16 golf contest winners are now millionaires after winning million dollar contests.
Early on, many players used complex algorithms to gain an unfair competitive edge on casual, novice and rookie players a fact DraftKings addressed by instituting more stringent rules and allowing less entries per player for select contests making skills and sport knowledge key components of winning.
“Golf continues to grow in popularity among DFS players globally at DraftKings and is our fourth-largest sport in terms of engagement, out of 15 total offerings.” added Kucharz.
Formats
For the British Open, I played what is known as a ‘Classic’ contest where six golfers are selected to play on your fantasy team as long as they fit under the salary cap with contests beginning on a given Thursday and finishing on the Sunday of that week’s PGA Tour tournament. I have also tried the ‘Showdown’ contests where contestants pick a team of six players that fit under the salary cap for a single round of a given tournament. I like doing the one round option on a Saturday after the cut because if you began playing on Thursday you get a good feel for who is playing well and who is really not.
A novelty I thoroughly enjoy is playing against others fellow PGA Tour DFS entrants from all over the country, however, there is also a private mode that allows customization of contests for playing alongside friends or work mates.
PGA TOUR DraftKings Fantasy Golf begins on July 22 in order for eager members to play during the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, July 25-28, 2019. Visit www.draftkings.com or download the DraftKings app via iOS and Android to play.
This deal allow for the PGA TOUR to continue offering their free-to-play fantasy games, including PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, PGA TOUR One&Done, and PGA TOUR Champions One&Done. These games and related content can be accessed at https://www.pgatour.com/fantasy.html.
Sports Tech Enhancements
PGA TOUR DraftKings Fantasy Golf participants can opt into receiving real-time video highlights of the players selected to play in their entrees. Sports technology will power other forms of fan engagement and content offerings. Look for additional brand activations within both PGA Tour and DraftKings platforms, Finally, the partners plan to launch exciting new product enhancements utilizing the real-time aspect the PGA Tour’s proprietary ShotLink delivered via a data feed produced by CDW.
“We are excited to partner with DraftKings, an industry leader in innovation and fan engagement, in this groundbreaking step for the PGA TOUR,” added Goicouria.
Sports Techie, me and everyone else had Brooks Koepka to win The Open as you can see it was a wise pick as he came in tied for 4th place. I only had one golfer miss the cut and that is often times enough to keep you out of winning big money. With my budget I usually play the free, or less than $1.00 contests but occasionally I will ramp to $5 or even $10 entry fees. I find it is easier to win with larger bets because when you play for $0.25 it usually has 50,000 entrants or more to divide the winnings. Small entry pools of 50 players are enjoyable and can be lucrative.
Goof for DFS, DraftKings and the PGA Tour to take this golf sports tech to the next level for fans to enjoy.
Fantasy Sports Fore!
See you later sportstechie in Seattle, Atlanta and around the world!
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