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Pilots participate in training rounds at the Drone Racing League / Allianz World Championship Final at Alexandra Palaceon June 08, 2017 in London, England.
Adam Gray | Barcroft Media | Getty Images
Sports betting company DraftKings and the Drone Racing League (DRL) announced on Friday an exclusive deal that will allow people to bet on drone racing. It should also help DraftKings meet the needs of a younger audience.
DRL is a first-person-view racing league where drone pilots race devices through neon-lit courses and compete for the best prizes. DRL did not provide the amount it pays to its competitors, but in 2017 the amount of the reward reached $ 100,000.
The two sides did not provide the financial terms of the deal.
Residents of Colorado, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Tennessee, and West Virginia can bet on drone races from their phones.
Established in 2015, DRL has captured the interest of young sports fans over the years. He’s set to complete the fifth season and will have a “level 14” racing event on Saturday followed by his championship event, which has yet to be announced.
The drones used in the events are designed and built by DRL. Identical models are built for each race. Each drone is worth around $ 2,000 and can travel up to 90 miles per hour.
“DRL’s exciting and innovative racing events are perfect for the personalized betting offers we can create,” said Ezra Kucharz, Commercial Director of DraftKings, in a statement. “Our expertise in sports betting combined with DRL’s statistically rich competition will make it a fun and seamless opportunity to engage their passionate audience with sports fans passionate about technology and adrenaline.”
DraftKings officials told CNBC that it had tested DRL’s betting interest with its free popularity pools offered in November and were happy with the results. The company had to switch to non-traditional sports offerings when the leagues closed last spring due to Covid-19.
Alignment with DRL gives DraftKings access to Gen Z consumers. Professional leagues still have problems attracting.
DRL uses the label “tech-setters” to define audience, describing the 16-34 age group as predominantly male and “deeply passionate about technology, science and games”. This group is also considered to be sports fans who do not follow traditional leagues or esports as closely as millennials.
DRL says this age group resembles their current fan base.
“They’re young; they’re influential, they’re tech-savvy,” DRL President Rachel Jacobson said in an interview with CNBC Friday. Jacobson added that the league will unlock the “next generation of betting fans” for DraftKings.
According to data from Wasserman Media Group, DRL fans are three times more likely to place a sports bet and 90% more interested in sports betting than the average global sports fan.
The Drone League has entered into media rights deals with NBC Sports and Sky Sports, owned by CNBC’s parent company, Comcast. It also has a streaming deal with Twitter to host its shows before the flight. The league said its Thursday show increased to 193,000 viewers, up from 75,000 viewers on the first show in December.
Jacobson said the company added eight new sponsorships in 2020, including sports drink maker Bodyarmor and a tech deal with T-Mobile, including building a 5G drone for the league.
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