Daily fantasy sports (DFS) operator DraftKings has entered into a partnership with Toronto-based Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE).
The four-year deal will allow select DraftKings players to enjoy “special experiences” with MLSE’s three pro sports franchises. MLSE owns the National Hockey League’s Toronto Maple Leafs, the National Basketball Association’s Toronto Raptors and Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC.
MLSE also owns Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, where MLSE chief commercial officer David Hopkinson said DraftKings would be setting up an “interactive zone” in which fans could play DFS on the site. DraftKings has installed similar ‘zones’ at three NFL stadiums.
The deal marks DraftKings’s first such pact outside the United States, and biz-dev VP Jeremy Elbaum said it marked the first salvo in a planned wave of international expansion. Elbaum called Canada an untapped market for DFS operators and said the MLSE deal was a natural given the “good results from people signing up in the Toronto area.”
The question of DFS’ legal status in Canada is an open one, but Hopkinson says MLSE is confident there will be no legal repercussions from the deal. Online gambling – and DFS is gambling – is supposed to be the sole privilege of Canada’s provincial lottery corporations, but so long as DraftKings keeps their servers outside the country, they’re likely in the clear.
The deal comes on a day that DraftKings and the entire DFS industry likely could not wait to see end. Over the weekend, controversy exploded over a DraftKings staffer’s access to sensitive player ownership percentage data and the suggestion that he may have used such data to win a $350k prize at rival DFS operator FanDuel.
DraftKings and FanDuel poured gasoline on this fire on Monday by releasing a vague joint statement that satisfied no one. Since that statement was released, mainstream news organizations across the US have picked up the story, prompting DraftKings to belatedly put a moratorium on its staff playing DFS at rival sites. But if they think that will put out this fire, they haven’t been paying attention. Again. Expect a call from Washington regarding regulation. Soon.
