Some of the most searched content on the web is that of sports. With so many people having a sports team as an outlet for relaxing and downtime it’s easy to see how the industry hit a market cap of 338 billion back in 2020. 

With more and more people tuning into sports, buying merchandise, and watching sports news, it’s no wonder why sports influencers have become such a lucrative way to make money, not only for the influencers though. Many sports betting /gambling companies have seen how many viewers these independent sports broadcasters or online personalities get and have been investing heavily in the influencer campaign market.

If you’re a sports broadcaster and are wondering what the benchmark for success is, look no further. Whether you’re a TV personality or a sports influencer the ultimate level of success in this industry comes in the form of a FanDuel partnership. 

While the company itself is only around 5 years old, they have been utilizing the power of influencer marketing and partnerships to further the reach of its brand. This is why they are one of the most used sports betting websites in the U.S. today and have a following to prove it.

The company is currently at the pinnacle of success in the industry due to the big names and mega deals that have been made with online shows and influencers. With names such as The Pat Mcafee Show and Kay Adams, they invest in top-tier personalities that strongly influence the marketing of their product to consumers. With various promotions for people who sign up through their affiliates, you can see how this business model can be financially rewarding, quickly.

Everything You Need To Know About FanDuel

FanDuel is a sports betting website and app that caters to every type of sports fan. They offer a new and innovative way for sports fans to make money and engage with their favorite teams, leagues, and sports all in one place.

Originally founded in July 2009, at South By South West in Austin, Texas, where the founders had a conversation about ideas on how to change the landscape of Fantasy sports. The initial founders would then go on to acquire VC funding from Scottish Enterprise and Pentech Ventures. So though they were in discussions originally about the company being U.S. based the brand was actually founded in Edinburgh, Scottland in 2009.

It wouldn’t be until the following year in 2010 that the company would host its very first Fantasy Football Championship. This championship consisted of ten contestants that qualified by winning their preliminary leagues that took place throughout the NFL season. The prizes were totaled at 40k USD and the first place prize was a total of 25K USD.

Moving forward the company never altered the way users interact online with one another and sports. The company’s main focus stayed in the world of “Fantasy sports” where various people compete in what is referred to as a league and they subsequently draft players from various teams to make up their fantasy team.

From 2013 to 2015  the brand would begin to branch out into different directions and begin a second round of VC funding in order to expand the company into different betting markets. They would acquire competitors layoff employees from Zynga 365 sports and end up buying out Kotikan, who would go on to help FanDuel develop their mobile app.

After a few good years of expanding the business, they announced their intent to merge with rival and competitor DraftKings. This merger was seen as dangerous with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) seeing the potential for this to become a monopoly due to the fact that the two companies held over 5 million users and would make up 90% of the DFS Market. This investigation would eventually come to an end and squash the deal which left the merger terminated.

With that being said and done, another company emerged as a potential partner in the form of Paddy Power Betting. This company announced that they would like to buy out FanDuel with a 158 million dollar contribution to the merger and to merge their established assets which included horse racing, into the FanDuel operation.

After that, they had collaborations with companies like Minute Maid, which created a site where fans could share information on sports betting with one another, and Scientific Games which served as a tech partner to help further their sports betting operations. In 2020 the company Flutter Entertainment would increase its stake in the sports betting company by 95% with a 4.1-billion-dollar cash/stock deal.

Tips On How To Partner With FanDuel

With sports becoming one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world and generating billions of dollars just in ad revenue each year, it’s easy to see why sports betting is becoming such a lucrative market. 

The subgenre of sports entertainment is crystal clear as well and many people are jumping on board to ride the wave. Some of the ways people are getting into the industry are either being sports analysts, sports talk personalities, Sports podcasters, photographers, athlete influencers, and journalists.

When going into these parts of the sports entertainment industry you need to be the best of the best in order to get the top-tier affiliates to even look at you. It’s important to know where you want to get to with your brand, and if you want to be a top brand you need to treat what you’re doing as a full-time job and be professional.

That being said, approaching a brand like FanDuel and getting their attention means getting your corporate and brand identity down and making sure you have a cohesive end product that caters to sports fans as a whole, no matter the sport or league you choose to cover.

Sports Reporting Influencers That Are Partnered With FanDuel

As stated previously, a lot of the sports industry with online influencers is evolving rapidly and the landscape changes weekly with new trends that seem to take the internet by storm. 

While some die off there are some that stay and have a lasting impact on the industry, but the main focus that sports influencers need to understand if they are trying to land a partnership like FanDuel is that you need to have a solid brand and a most importantly consumer and audience trust. 

In this section, we’re going to be talking about some of the leaders in the space that have current and past deals with FanDuel and touch on some of the reasons they have been successful.

The Pat Mcaffee Show

A perfect example of this type of sportscasting is the Pat Mcaffee Show 2.0. Being a former NFL player obviously helped him break into the industry but if you look at the way he and his supporting cast carry themselves and keep things authentic, you can see that it’s actually a really good show that’s run pretty smoothly. 

The production and live stream that they showcase is second to none and the group has been able to evolve in this market as they built the ship midair. The show is done so well that it actually has a higher popularity than most sports broadcasters on major news networks.

The Macaffee Show is a great example of independent media sportscasters around the world. The show is proof that you can make it big even if you don’t have a massive studio behind you.

Kay Adams

Who is more recognizable than Kay Adams? No one, at least when talking to any NFL fan that is. 

Kay Adams is a Chicago-born sportscaster who got her start in the industry working as a host for the St. Louis Cardinals. From there she would make the jump to NFL content on SiriusXM’s Livin the Fantasy and Fantasy Drive as well as Direct TVs Sunday Ticket Fantasy Zone.

After this, she would get a big break and become one of the most recognizable faces in the sports world when she was everyone’s favorite talk host on the Good Morning Football show on the NFL Network. She would work there from 2016 until 2022 when she would eventually leave and take on her new role at FanDuel TV getting her very own show under the name Up and Adams.

Though she may have had an “in” in the industry with connections and work experience in mass media, it should be noted that you too can create a following the way she did – independently. The main factor is to be consistent and continually grow and evolve with the industry so you can be the next “face of the industry” in your niche.

Bill Simmons

Bill is an American-born sportswriter and CEO of the sports media website The Ringer and also the host of the Bill Simmons Podcast. The main focus of his writing and podcast is relatability as a nonsports person living his everyday life as a sports fan. 

Being able to merge his talents in writing and journalism with his passion for being a sports fan has pushed his content to the masses and subsequently grown his following and online popularity.

Jordan Spieth

Jordan is a professional golfer for the PGA and the 2015 Masters Tournament winner. He has amassed a plethora of accolades over his career including the time he tied Tiger Woods’s 1997 72-hole record in which he became the second youngest winner of the Master’s Tournament. He would also go on to become the youngest U.S. Open Champion in the same year.

Jordan is a good example of how an athlete can become an influencer for FanDuel. Though many people may not have as much of a following as him or the accolades to back up their professional career, it’s important to remember that the influencer sphere related to sports, in general, is rapidly changing.

For example, many Universities around the U.S. are now allowing student-athletes that compete in the NCAA to make money in ways that were once not allowed. This opens the market for young aspiring athletes to benefit from lucrative and beneficial partnership deals in an influencer capacity.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is clear, everyone loves sports, and because of how much these teams play a role in our culture and day-to-day life you can bet it’s something that has longevity. 

That’s why if you have or are thinking of going into content creation for sports, now is the time to do so. With a projection to reach a market cap of 623 Billion dollars by 2027, there is a lot of money to be made in this industry, and if you’re one of the first independent creators to do so, you will make a good living doing something only a few people have been able to do up to this point.

As an industry that’s still relatively untapped and has plenty of room to expand, being a sports influencer could be lucrative if you build a brand that’s strong enough to land a deal with a sports betting company like FanDuel. 

Whether you’re a sportswriter, an ex-pro athlete, a sportscaster, or a sports or fantasy sports analyst, your aim should be the same – the top. That being said, FanDuel is at the top of the industry and has changed the way everyone around the U.S. bets and views sports of all kinds. The main thing to take into consideration is to make sure you have a professional outlook on the industry and have a following that not only is loyal but trusts you and the information you provide.