We recently wrote about FanDuel acquiring tennis and German soccer rights to stream in their betting app, and discussed how that could lead to a trend when further top-tier league streaming rights become available. But there’s an interesting move along similar lines from a company that already has NFL streaming rights; that would be Yahoo Sports (and parent company Verizon). Yahoo has been streaming NFL games since January 2018 as part of a Verizon-NFL extension, but only through their main Yahoo Sports app; they announced at Verizon’s Media NewFront presentation in New York Tuesday night (with an announcement from New York Jets’ quarterback Sam Darnold and Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football expert Liz Loza) that they’ll now be extending that to their fantasy football app. Here’s more from a release:
When football returns for the 2019-2020 season, in addition to NFL live streaming on the Yahoo Sports mobile app, Yahoo Sports will be extending NFL streaming rights into the Yahoo Fantasy Football mobile app for the first time ever. NFL fans can root for their favorite teams and watch all local and primetime games free and unauthenticated in the Yahoo Fantasy Football app, the Yahoo Sports app and other Verizon and NFL media properties on phones and tablets.
The appeal here isn’t quite the same as streaming in a gambling app, as thanks to roster locks, users can’t really bet on upcoming plays in the game they’re watching. But watching a game can lead to fantasy users wanting to make decisions to affect their roster down the road; if an unexpected player suddenly breaks out, they could put in an add or a waiver claim for him, and now they can do that in the same app they’re using to watch the game. Those who like following their fantasy matchups with live scoring can now do that in the same app they’re watching the game in, too. And while this is starting just with Yahoo and the NFL, it wouldn’t be surprising to see other fantasy apps work in game streams down the road.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.