USA Today has launched its foray into the growing daily fantasy sports market with Fantasy Score.
To align with the start of the NFL football season, Fantasy Score will offer daily fantasy football. There are plans to release other fantasy sports in baseball, basketball and hockey.
USA Today had already fantasy sports content provider such as KFFL which has now been merged into USA Today Sports and USA Today Fantasy Sports that will provide analysis on Fantasy Score. Visitors of KFFL.com will already see the announcement and redirect them to fantasy.usatoday.com
TheHuddle.com which is also a branded USA Today Sports sites has not moved over to the new sites and plans for its future has not been announced yet.
Fantasy Score will originally make money on ad revenue as well as game fees however, as the site grows special events would be added to increase revenue for the site.
USA Today joins the daily fantasy market that includes market leader FanDuel and the recently formulated number 2, DraftKings that recently acquired DraftStreet.
FsSb says: According to Forbes writer Darren Heitner, both FanDuel and DraftKings have welcomed USA Today involvement in the daily fantasy sports sector. I openly wonder should they be so welcoming.
USA Today is an established brand and is more popular mainstream than FanDuel and DraftKings. It is more likely that people off the street will recognize USA Today than the others. That brand recognition brings with it legitimacy to a market that has been knee deep in the question of if daily fantasy sport is a form a gambling.
The question has so far kept the juggernauts in the fantasy market, ESPN and Yahoo! at bay from entering the daily fantasy market. USA Today doesn't seem to have an issue with it. If I were FanDuel and DraftKings, I would be more cautions if ESPN and/or Yahoo! entered the market.
Although the fantasy sports is growing, ultimately the number of fantasy players are finite. It would be tough to compete with the likes of ESPN, Yahoo! and USA Today. This also does not include CBS Sports and Fox Sports with their own fantasy sports presence.
USA Today can supplement its revenue stream with advertisement and then can also offer payouts that would rival FanDuel and DraftKings, when that day comes I believe there will be more consolidation on the horizon. I am wondering does it make more sense for a ESPN or Yahoo! to start their own daily fantasy sites from scratch because of their establishment in fantasy sports or buy a FanDuel/DraftKings if they day of consolidation occurs.
