• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

FanDuel CEO admits they may have gone overboard with their daily fantasy football ads

Status
Not open for further replies.
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://consumerist.com/2016/02/19/f...might-have-overdone-it-a-bit-with-the-tv-ads/

For several weeks during the recently concluded NFL season, either FanDuel or DraftKings were the top spenders on TV advertising, interrupting seemingly every show to tout how easy it is for the average Joe to win big at daily fantasy sports (assuming that the “average Joe” is in the elite tier of DFS players). That doesn’t include official sponsorship deals with teams, TV networks, and pro sports leagues (or that shoehorned-in DraftKings-sponsored subplot during the final season of The League). Looking back on it now, the CEO of FanDuel confesses that maybe they should tone it down a bit with the advertising going forward.

Speaking yesterday at the Re/code Code/Media conference, FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles said that the recent onslaught of TV advertising was successful at reaching the core audience for DFS, but that it had the unintended effect of annoying people who had no interest in playing.

“There’s nothing more interesting in life than your fantasy football team, but there’s nothing less interesting in life than your buddy’s fantasy football team,” Eccles explained. “I think what we did was we reminded you about your buddy’s fantasy football team every fifteen seconds for several months.”

Eccles also admitted that going full-throttle with these ads might have had a little bit to do with the fact that multiple attorneys general around the country are now investigating whether or not DFS sites are illegal gambling operations.

As a result, the CEO says “We’re definitely going to spend differently [on ads], it probably won’t be as much.”
Click to expand...
 
M

mreddie

Member
latest
 
A

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
"We realized that hey, maybe when people are writing to senators to make our industry illegal just in hopes of stopping our ads, maybe then we've gone a bit too far"
 
K

KarmaCow

Member
It was annoying how it was everywhere but it was funny to hear the people over time slowly struggle to talk around the gambling nature of stuff like Fan Duel and Draft Kings in adlibbed podcast ad reads.
 
B

BigDug13

Member
Archaix said:
"We realized that hey, maybe when people are writing to senators to make our industry illegal just in hopes of stopping our ads, maybe then we've gone a bit too far"
Click to expand...

That's where I was with it. I wanted the DOJ to shut them all down just to make it all stop during my commercial breaks. I mean I didn't literally write my senators but I certainly rooted for their downfall.
 
R

redmetal86

Member
Reminds me of that Simpsons marathon on FXX where they would keep playing those commercials with the promo code "THE LEAGUE".
 
R

rrs

Member
Archaix said:
"We realized that hey, maybe when people are writing to senators to make our industry illegal just in hopes of stopping our ads, maybe then we've gone a bit too far"
Click to expand...

more like grabbing every cent before the feds crash their gambling party
 
L

LosDaddie

Banned
Even worse is how fantasy football ruined the actual announcing/narration during the NFL games. The announcers would state some useless stat of a WR having, like, 20yds every game or so that nobody other than fantasy football people cared about.
 
DiscoJer

DiscoJer

Member
“There’s nothing more interesting in life than your fantasy football team, but there’s nothing less interesting in life than your buddy’s fantasy football team,” Eccles explained
Click to expand...

In the late 70s and early 80s, you had people (mostly nerds, but not always) going on and on about their D&D character. Eventually it declined until it was just the sort of dudes that hang out at game stores.

People talking about their fantasy football team is basically the modern equivalent of that. Only you can't escape, it's everywhere. The ads meant you couldn't escape it in your own home.
 
T

tiggerkiddo

Member
Well cutting down the amount of ads by 90 percent would be just fine with me. I'd be happy if I never heard from them again because man the oversaturation of the ads was so obnoxious.
 
L

LizardKing

Member
Fantasy football coverage in general is over saturated. I really don't understand how people can sit down and watch a show about who you should start in fantasy football. And I'm a big football fan.
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
BeatnikGunsoo said:
my friend won 50k from draftkings

spent 20 bucks won 50k

i'm jealous of his luck
Click to expand...

A large enough winning for the IRS to notice. I believe those companies mail out tax forms once winnings hit a certain threshold, but I dunno if they withhold taxes on winnings and simply rely on the players to self-report and pay taxes themselves. If that's the case, hopefully your friend didn't spend it all and put some aside for the tax man!
 
B

BobLoblaw

Banned
Fucking yes. Them and Draft Kings. That's the main reason why I want them shut down. I can still hear some of those shitty ads in my head.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

FanDuel and DraftKings are dropping their merger
3
724
Violence Jack replied
A record of Segas reactions, mistakes, missteps, poor or misguided decisions, JUST in 1996.
2 3
138
15K
kvltus lvlzvs replied
The Atari 7800 is a criminally underrated system filled with fun games and hidden gems.
2 3
149
20K
n0razi replied
  • Locked
Congressional sub-committee to examine daily fantasy sports industry
1
802
SecretMoblin replied
Video games, esports 'skyrocket' in popularity during pandemic
6
1K
Shizumapower replied
Top Bottom