Big Time Sports has now, apparently, been TAKEN OVER by Fantasy Leagues. As if cheerleader T&A shows…. and permanent brain damage…. and under-inflated footballs…. and casino elevator assaults et al were not enoug
h….
Over the past half-century plus, I have constructed for myself a Bubble of Intentional Ignorance. There are a LOT of topics I know nothing about because…. I simply lack the motivation of curiosity and make no effort to educate myself. A quick scan of My List would find:
High end wine, cigars, “Hi-Fi” or sports cars
The logistics of having sex with Siamese Twins
Joining the Private VIP “Monkey Board” of any college/pro sports team on Earth
Whether Bruce/Caitlyn (or Hillary Clinton) wears boxers, briefs or a thong
the list goes on…..
(FWIW: My friend “Albert’s” List is A LOT longer than mine…. or yours…. or mine and yours combined X 10! Bless his heart.)
On My List is “pretty much anything about Sports Fantasy Leagues”.
Back in 1979, while living in Kansas City, 4-5 of us created the PFL (Paper Football League) in which we each picked certain NFL players on “our teams” and assigned points for their performance. We scanned each week’s copy of Pro Football Weekly for the stats to determine which of us “won” that week. I forgot what the wager was…. probably “buy dinner” or maybe as much as $5-$10. Two years later I moved to Dallas thus ending my hands-on involvement in “fantasy leagues”. Apparently they have flourished even without my participation.
Somewhat related…. I stopped filling out March Madness brackets four years ago. I don’t do even ONE, much less the dozen or so that most human beings do each March. Not being “in an office environment” there is no pressure to do so.
I gave up golf cold-turkey over a dozen years ago, but that is another story for another day.
I am not a prude about “gambling” or “wagering on sports”. I simply don’t. No clue how to “place a bet” if I wanted to. If the nice Korean lady that runs “my dry cleaners” is “a bookie” it’s never come up in our 20-year relationship. I’ve also never bought a Lottery Ticket.… don’t know how… but assume if I walked into any convenience store someone behind that bullet-proof glass could assist me. …. and possibly explain the logistics of having sex with Siamese Twins if I asked.
But even from within my Bubble of Intentional Ignorance, I can see that two dueling Fantasy Leagues are now wagering an all-out Ad War with one another the likes of which that we haven’t seen since VCR and BetaMax went at it.
For your daily Edification I am including a series of links to articles about this latest phenomenon.
The only personal opinion I shall offer on this is:
If you have some how convinced yourself that this is not really gambling then you probably have also convinced yourself that (1) NFL Cheerleaders are not “soft-core porn” … and (2) All the hubbub about the dangers inherent in playing football is just a Communist plot.
Self-delusion is also a wonderful Bubble in which to insulate oneself from reality.
If you read our Reader Comments you might have seen my recent Reply to NCSU68 re: the latest decomposed body that PackPride has dug up in UNCCH’s backyard…. Falsifying attendance figures for Kenan Stadium.
I said “I Don’t Care” because….. (1) I’ve known about that particular on-going scam for 25 years…. and (2) 50% of the “conspiracy hand grenades” that State and UNC overly-caffeinated partisans are forever throwing at each other ARE TRUE. The other 50% would have been true had the fan base / school being accused thought of them first.
###
Scott Van Pelt on Daily Fantasy Leagues – LINK.
No Fantasy Ads on SEC Network …. LINK.
The Reality of These Fantasy Leagues …. LINK
Just how many DraftKings and FanDuel ads are there on an NFL Sunday?
Posted by Matt Yoder on Sep 21, 2015 13:45
The biggest storyline coming out of Week 1 of the NFL season had nothing to do with developments on the field – it was daily fantasy companies DraftKings and FanDuel’s seemingly endless bombardment of commercials. At times, it seemed as if the football was interrupting one long commercial for these companies. The spending of DraftKings and FanDuel on television ads is astronomical, and maybe even unprecedented. After not even being in existence a few years ago, DraftKings is now the #1 advertiser in all of television. The two companies spent a combined $31 million on advertising consisting of 9,000 ads just last week. It’s gotten so out of hand that an image like the one above isn’t too far out of the question with 2016 around the corner.
But all the furor and frustration over the proliferation of daily fantasy ads got me wondering… just how many DraftKings and FanDuel commercials would you encounter on any given NFL Sunday. So I made the brave (or insane) decision to watch an entire day’s worth of football yesterday to witness DraftKings and FanDuel take over the world before my very eyes. Before you completely question my sanity, I DVR’d these programs and sped through the actual games to get to the important stuff – the daily fantasy commercials. You think I’d sit through Cowboys-Eagles again just for this study?
To cross the spectrum, I watched one programming chunk from each network – three hours of ESPN pregame coverage (Sunday NFL Insiders and Sunday NFL Countdown), the early game from CBS (Browns-Titans), the late game from Fox (Cowboys-Eagles), and NBC’s SNF game (Seahawks-Packers). The results from 12 hours of football might surprise you…
TOTAL COMMERCIALS
DraftKings: 16
FanDuel: 14
COMMERCIALS BY WINDOW
ESPN Pregame: 10
CBS Early Game: 5
Fox Late Game: 9
NBC Primetime Game: 6
You’re probably thinking the same thing I’m thinking… that’s it? To be honest, I was expecting many more ads from FanDuel and DraftKings, but perhaps the perception has already outdueled the reality with how extensive these ad campaigns truly are. Make no mistake, this is still a lot of ads – during Cowboys-Eagles you got more than 2 daily fantasy commercials a quarter. Interestingly, there were many more ads during the first half of these games than the second half. But at least during the games, the ads were more infrequent than you might think.
READ MORE…. LINK
####
