In June 2018, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) released its annual market research findings conducted by IPSOS. This year’s report had a key aim: to discover any overlaps in participation behaviour between fantasy sports and sports betting, and to determine the potential effects on both industries.
The report found that of the 980 fantasy players and 979 sports bettors surveyed, an identical percentage (51.5%) of each group played each product exclusively, with 475 (or 32%) of those surveyed across both categories crossing over, having participated in both fantasy sports (DFS and/or traditional leagues) and sports betting in the past year.
JOAKIM RENMAN is Scout Gaming’s commercial director and has spent 11 years in the igaming industry. Joakim has worked with most of the biggest operators and suppliers in the industry and is responsible for the Scout Gaming’s commercial strategy.
One particularly interesting fact was that DFS players play more frequently than sports bettors, with 73% participating at least on a weekly basis.
Just 59% of sports bettors said they took part weekly. Among crossover players, the participation frequency increases significantly with 80% of playing DFS on a weekly basis, and 70% placing sports bets on a weekly basis.
Meanwhile, crossover players are 20% more likely than exclusive sports bettors to engage in wagering on a weekly basis, making a strong case for operators to try to marry the two concepts. Crossover players also spend more across the board.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, crossover players are also more likely to make parlay bets. After all, the practice of combining selections into a single bet requires the exact same pre-match analysis as when building a fantasy team. Combination bets were placed by 82% of crossover players, compared to 65% of exclusive sports bettors.
On an associated note, fears that sports betting will cannibalise fantasy play appear to be completely unfounded, with 86% of traditional sports bettors and 78% of DFS players expecting to play just as often following the PASPA ruling.
Other findings from the report showed that fantasy players, and in particular DFS players, tend to have higher access to digital devices, signalling a higher marketability towards the fantasy population. The general trend in Europe is that big-spending players tend to use mobile devices, with 60% favouring them over desktop machines. DFS players also rank highest in all categories of data and premium advice services, spending more to help improve their play.
Key takeaways:
• Nearly half of the current sports betting population in the US also play fantasy sports (and vice versa)
• Compared to traditional fantasy, DFS has a high degree of crossover with sports betting, and is likely to be the “point of entry” for sports bettors.
• Crossover players are heavily involved in all aspects of fantasy play and sports betting; they play more often, across a greater number of sports, and spend more on related services.
• Few fantasy players will lessen their fantasy sports involvement due to impending legalisation.
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•NAME SCOUT GAMING GROUP •FOUNDED 2014•SECTOR FANTASY SPORTS & BETTING •WEBSITESCOUTGAMINGGROUP.COM•TWITTER@SCOUTGGROUP