Here’s just how much DraftKings and FanDuel ad spending has decreased in the last year

Once upon a time, just last year in fact, television advertising spending was ruled by daily fantasy sports.

In fact, there was a moment in our history when DraftKings was the number one commercial spender in the entire country – outpacing corporate giants like McDonalds, Wal-Mart, and Subway.

However, daily fantasy has fallen on hard times with battles over its legality happening and a money pit that isn’t actually bottomless. (Maybe because they spent such an insane amount of money on commercials.)  The specter of an inside information scandal also severely hampered the industry’s credibility.  Since the end of the last NFL season, daily fantasy sports has basically disappeared from the national landscape.

But football is back upon us.  So is daily fantasy ready for a comeback?

According to Anthony Crupi of AdAge, FanDuel bought national television commercial time for the first time since February on Labor Day.  Fresh off another $150 million investment, DraftKings spent much more than their daily fantasy rivals did.

But even with the combined numbers in place, both companies are still way off the pace from where they were a year ago.

Today marks the first time in 7 months FanDuel has spent $ on national TV inventory. $3,475 so far, mostly on NFLN. Last Labor Day: $454,624

— Anthony Crupi (@crupicrupicrupi) September 5, 2016

Final tally for FanDuel's Labor Day 2016 TV spend (its 1st national TV investment since Feb.): $15,942. A pittance vs last year's $454,624.

— Anthony Crupi (@crupicrupicrupi) September 6, 2016

FWIW: DraftKings today spent ~25x more than FanDuel, dropping $400,537. Last Labor Day: $1.37 million. TV nets not getting rich off DFS…

— Anthony Crupi (@crupicrupicrupi) September 6, 2016

All totaled, FanDuel ad spending was down a whopping 96.5% from 2015 to 2016.  And although 400k is nothing to sneeze at, DraftKings’ ad spending was down 70.8% from last year to this year.  Combined, the two companies spent almost $1.5 million less in advertising.  That’s more money than anyone reading this article (0r writing it) will see in their lifetimes.

It’s impossible to fathom that DraftKings and FanDuel will dominate your NFL Sundays this year the way that they did last year.  You should prepare for some kind of resurrection of the two companies (with DraftKings much more of a prominent national force based on the Labor Day numbers), but it’s really a drop in the bucket compared to the blitzkrieg that happened last year.