To further distinguish itself in the sports betting market, FanDuel is now offering customers the ability to livestream NFL games in its app.
FanDuel’s latest feature comes as the result of an expanded partnership with Genius Sports. While FanDuel’s previous arrangement with Genius Sports centered around the company’s status as the exclusive rights holder of the NFL’s official league data, the expanded partnership will provide the sports gambling app with BetVision, allowing customers to livestream games.
“As an Official Sports Betting Partner of the National Football League, we’re continuing to look for ways to elevate the betting experience on our platform for fans during every game,” FanDuel Chief Commercial Officer Mike Raffensperger said in a release. “Partnering with Genius will allow us to pair our industry-leading product with access to BetVision to build a seamless live betting experience for fans.”
Genius Sports currently provides similar technology to the Caesars Sportsbook and Fanatics Sportsbook. As was the case when it reached a deal with Fanatics in September, most — if not all — of the P.R. work from the new partnership has come from Genius, which likely isn’t a coincidence.
As we noted in September, the league would likely prefer not to upset its broadcast partners by widely publicizing that games can be watched in a gambling app as opposed to on TV. And while the NFL has leaned into multiple gambling-related partnerships — including one with FanDuel — the idea of being able to simultaneously watch and live bet on games in the same app might simply be a bridge too far, optics-wise.
While the press release didn’t note any restrictions on which games would be available for streaming, Fanatics’ deal limits the sportsbook’s offerings to in-market games that the customer had wagered at least $1 on. One would imagine FanDuel’s offerings will be similar, as it’s unlikely the NFL would allow an NFL Sunday Ticket-type package to simply exist on a gambling app.
While Genius Sports’ previous deals with Caesars and Fanatics flew under the radar, it wouldn’t be surprising to see this one garner more attention due to FanDuel’s prominence. And if that’s the case, it will be interesting to see how much of a difference it makes in the increasingly crowded sports betting market.
