Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming October 2015 10 The Venetian lounge features a 100 x 10 foot (30.5 x 3.05 meter) video screen capable of showing one event or divisible into up to 42 separate ones, plus a separate screen dedicated to racing. The lounge has 118 personal betting stations with computer screens and takes wagers on all major race and sporting events. Feature In Focus Daily fantasy sports are making sports betting mainstream in the US, getting ahead of policymakers and the gaming industry to let sports fans test their skills as team owners using the actual performance of real professional players. Sports bodies that shun betting on their contests have nevertheless embraced daily fantasy sports (DFS). In fantasy sports, players create their own teams, usually within a budget, and their athletes are rated based on their statistics in selected categories. The phenomenon emerged from less formal arrangements during the mid-1980s in the US with Rotisserie Baseball, named for the restaurant where a group of New York media types met and formalized their version of season- long fantasy play. The idea soon expanded to other sports, but baseball, with its wealth of individual player statistics that are widely available, and daily play, is still a huge component. Leagues often include an entry fee, with the top teams receiving prizes at the end of the season. The growth of the internet expanded Dream Teams fantasy sports, mainly as a form of social gaming on sports news websites, with an estimated 46.2 million players, according to Eilers Research Partner Adam Krejcik. The fantasy game changed as an unintended consequence of the US Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act, passed in 2006 to prevent offshore processing of US players’ online gambling transactions. The law, enacted to curb online poker and traditional sports betting, included provisions to allow fantasy sports leagues to continue operating as games of skill with predetermined prizes. By 2009, daily fantasy sports appeared, with rules similar to the season- long games. Some states have moved to ban DFS for money, but the constituency that won the fantasy sports exemption in the first place has only expanded thanks to DFS. Estimates of DFS players range up to 8.9 million; Eilers research suggests 3.9 million unique paying DFS players at present, or 8% of the total fantasy sports universe. “We estimate $3.7 billion in entry fees—equivalent to sports wagering handle—for DFS in calendar year 2015, which compares to expected Nevada sports betting handle of about $4 billion, of which Las Vegas accounts for around $2 billion,” says Mr Krejcik, who spoke to overflow crowds at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas last month, and at the International Association of Gaming Advisors conference in Vancouver in June. Revenue is based on a rake model, similar to poker, “so it’s all about liquidity and volume,” Mr Krejcik explains. Entry fees typically range from $2 to $20. For golf, fantasy competitions run over the course of a tournament with points awarded for statistics such as birdies, deductions for bogies, and an additional award for standing at the end of the tournament. TWO HORSE RACE Leading DFS companies FanDuel and DraftKings currently hold a combined 95% market share, Eilers estimates. FanDuel, the overwhelming market leader through last year, has $362.5 million in backing from affiliates of media companies Comcast, TimeWarner and NBC Sports and venture capital all-stars like KKR. DraftKings has raised $426 million from the likes of Fox Sports, sports franchise owner and broadcaster MSG, Major League Baseball