Crownbet – Fox Sports sponsorship launches daily fantasy sports site
News on 1 Apr 2016
News on 1 Apr 2016
Australian online gambling group CrownBet in collaboration with Fox Sports has announced the launch of its first daily fantasy sports operation titled Draftstars, celebrating the event as the first business-to-business deal for the Sportech-owned DraftDay platform.
A statement from the companies advises:
“Fox Sports Australia has teamed with CrownBet to launch Draftstars, offering Australia’s biggest fantasy prize pools and an exciting way for sport lovers to test their skill and knowledge against each other.”
The early version of Draftstars launched Thursday, offering daily and weekly AFL contests for the 2016 AFL Premiership season.
Our readers will recall that mid-March the companies confirmed that they were in “advanced talks” on a daily fantasy sports joint venture – the media company’s first venture into the local sports wagering market, and that the two firms were working toward a deal in time for the AFL season, which started March 24.
“Subscription television group Fox Sports would provide marketing muscle and cross promotion with its AFL and NRL coverage, while CrownBet has a gambling licence, industry expertise and is the AFL’s official wagering partner,” the reports revealed.
James Packer’s Crown Resorts owns 67 percent of CrownBet, while Fox News parent News Corp Australia is the local arm of Rupert Murdoch’s global publishing empire.
Fox Sports in the US, which is owned by Murdoch’s cable TV and film giant 21st Century Fox, has backed US daily fantasy sports market leader DraftKings.
The news that CrownBet and Fox Sports were in talks on fantasy sports followed reports of a joint venture between Tabcorp and News Corp UK, called Sun Bets, struck in December (see previous reports).
