New poll claims that daily fantasy sports could be a threat to casinos and lotteries

An online poll conducted by the Leger research intelligence group among 1,004 US daily fantasy sports players has concluded that money spent on online DFS reduces the amount spent on casino and lottery games and tickets.

More than 61 percent of DFS players said that their spending on DFS decreased the amount they budgeted for casino and lottery games such as Mega Millions, Powerball or Instant Games.

Fanduel players interviewed online spent an average $37 per playing session, whilst DraftKings respondents spent slightly more on average at $39. Leger says these amounts increase substantially among players who frequent both market leaders.

In addition to lowering lottery spend, 56 percent of DFS players say that this season’s Fantasy Football spend has decreased their casino gambling budgets, a development which may in part explain why Nevada banned unlicensed DFS action recently .

Leger points out that 15 percent of U.S. adult respondents claimed to have played on DFS sites this season, narrowly behind the 17 percent who report playing in a regular, traditional Fantasy Football (FF) league this season.

“The onslaught of advertising by both FanDuel and DraftKings seems to be paying off in both DFS brand awareness as well as participation,” said Lance Henik, senior account manager at Leger.

“Moreover, the results of our latest poll show that room for growth in DFS participation continues to exist, despite the controversy around the ‘Coke and Pepsi’ of the DFS Industry reaching new heights this October.”

Leger’s October 2015 poll shows more than one in four (28 percent) adults overall consider DFS play as gambling.  The perception of Daily Fantasy Sports as gambling increases dramatically among DFS players, as more than four in five (85 percent) who play DFS overall consider their participation as gambling.

And a significantly higher proportion of adults overall (39 percent) consider ‘regular’ Fantasy Sports (such as Fantasy Football, Fantasy Baseball, etc.) as gambling when compared to the daily version.

“The general knowledge and experience, direct or otherwise, around the ‘traditional’ Fantasy Football league casts a wider net than DFS,” said Henik. “While players of Fantasy Football and/or DFS consider either activity as gambling; there are also more conversations witnessed among colleagues, friends, family, etc., around Fantasy Football leagues than DFS, the latter of which tends to be an individual activity.”

Overall, 40 percent of US respondents to the Leger study do not think employees of companies that run daily or weekly fantasy sports websites should be allowed to play daily/weekly fantasy games, with another quarter (24 percent) unsure.

This is in direct contrast with the perception of DFS among its players, where nearly three-quarters (73 percent) DFS players think employees of these companies should be allowed to play daily/weekly fantasy games, and nearly half (45 percent) think employees should be
allowed to play regardless of whether they are employed by the same site, and 28 percent think they should be allowed to play, but only at a different site).

Referencing the recent “insider” DFS scandal centred on an employee playing and winning on a rival DFS site, Henik comments:

“By and large, DFS players are seemingly unmoved by this scandal [and] the impact on play is nowhere near the extent experienced by the online poker sites a few years ago, at least in the short term.”

Further illustrating the strength of DFS play in spite of the ‘insider’ scandal is the room for growth that still exists for new DFS players this season, he says

According to Leger, 9 percent of current non-players claim they are either “extremely likely,” or “very likely” to play on a DFS site this season, with 4 percent stating ‘extremely likely’.  If this increase in player penetration happens, DFS play could well surpass conventional traditional FF league play by the end of the NFL season.

Leger found that both regular fantasy football and DFS action is at 28 percent for both forms among the desirable younger Millennials demographic (18-29 year olds). However, a gap exists between the older Millennial/younger Generation X group, those between 30-39 years age, who played DFS (26 percent) and playing FF (30 percent).

Finally, Leger’s research also shows that potential players aged 30-39 are more than four times as likely as their younger peers to cite a strong likelihood to play DFS this season, indicating that future growth could come from the slightly older millennials.

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