Pilots compete in practice rounds in the final of the Drone Racing League / Allianz World Championship at Alexandra Palace on June 8, 2017 in London, England.
Adam Gray | Barcroft Media | Getty Images
Sports betting DraftKings and the Drone Racing League (DRL) announced an exclusive deal on Friday that will allow people to bet on drone races. It should also help DraftKings target a younger audience.
DRL is a first-person-view racing competition where drone pilots race with devices through neon-lit tracks and compete for the main prize money. DRL has not provided the amount it pays its competitors, but in 2017 the reward amount reached $ 100,000.
The two sides have not provided any financial terms of the deal.
People in Colorado, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Tennessee and West Virginia can place bets on drone races from their phones.
Founded in 2015, DRL has built interest among younger sports fans over the years. It is scheduled to close the fifth season and will have a “level 14” race event on Saturday, followed by the championship event, which has yet to be announced.
Drones used in events are designed and built by DRL. Identical models are built for each race. Each drone is worth about $ 2,000 and can travel up to 90 miles per hour.
“DRL’s exciting, innovative racing events are perfect for the bespoke betting offering we can create,” said Ezra Kucharz, DraftKings Chief Business Officer, in a statement. “Our sports betting expertise combined with DRL’s stats game will make this a fun and seamless opportunity to engage their avid audiences along with tech-savvy, adrenaline-loving sports fans.”
DraftKings officials told CNBC that it was testing DRL’s betting interest with its free-to-play popularity pools offered in November and were pleased with the results. The company had to switch to non-traditional sports offerings when competitions shut down last spring due to Covid-19.
Alignment with DRL gives DraftKings access to Generation Z consumers who still have trouble attracting pro competitions.
DRL uses the label “tech-setters” to define audiences and describes the 16-34 age group as predominantly male and “deeply passionate about technology, science and gaming.” This group is also considered sports fans who don’t follow traditional leagues or esports as closely as millennials.
DRL says this age group is similar to its current fan base.
“They’re young; they’re influential, they’re tech-savvy,” DRL president Rachel Jacobson said in an interview with CNBC on Friday. Jacobson added that the competition will unlock the “next generation of betting fans” for DraftKings.
DRL fans post three times more likely to place a sports bet and 90% more interested in sports betting compared to the average global sports fan, according to data from Wasserman Media Group.
The drone league has media rights agreements with NBC Sports and Sky Sports, owned by CNBC parent company Comcast. It also has a streaming deal with Twitter to host its pre-flight shows. The league said Thursday’s show grew to 193,000 viewers, up from 75,000 on the first show in December.
Jacobson said the company added eight new sponsorships in 2020, including sports drink maker Bodyarmor and a technology deal with T-Mobile, which includes building a 5G drone for the competition.