DraftKings, FanDuel re-up with NFL after riff over in-app streaming costs

After reports surfaced earlier this month that DraftKings and FanDuel were balking at the new price of partnering with the NFL’s official data provider, Genuis Sports, it appears the two major sportsbooks have come to terms with the league.

The NFL announced on Thursday that DraftKings and FanDuel have re-signed as two of the league’s three official betting operators, joining Fanatics which had already reportedly reached a deal with the league. The agreements allow the three sportsbooks to advertise during NFL broadcasts and, crucially, access the real-time data provided by Genius Sports that underpins lucrative live-betting offerings.

As Awful Announcing wrote about earlier this month, an agreement with Genius was necessary if DraftKings and FanDuel wanted to continue offering in-app livestreams of NFL games. Under the terms of the old agreements, users that placed a wager on a game could access a stream of that game within the sportsbook app. It’s unclear if those terms have changed under the new deals, though that level of access is relatively standard across leagues.

Genius, however, raised its prices to a point where it was unclear if DraftKings and FanDuel would be willing to meet the data provider’s demands. Fanatics, which was on the outside looking in on one of the NFL’s three coveted official betting operator slots last season, did not hesitate to pay the price. Ultimately, Fanatics replaced Caesars as the third official operator alongside DraftKings and FanDuel.

Financial details of the deals were not disclosed, though the NFL was reportedly making about $200 million combined between the three sportsbooks under the terms of its previous agreements.

Per ESPN, sportsbook ads will still be limited to about one per quarter of play, a rate that is slightly below the number of beer or hard seltzer ads viewers see while watching the NFL.

As for the growing presence of prediction markets, the NFL is still holding out. “That’s not a space that we’re considering right now commercially,” NFL chief revenue officer Renie Anderson told ESPN.