- Daily fantasy sports are having their moment with the beginning of the new football season; just ask anyone who complained about sitting through what seemed like several million ads for FanDuel and DraftKings during last weekend's games.
- The single-day contests promise cash prizes to a vast and attentive fan audience. But the real winners from the boom, Nomura suggests, are the media companies that reap that ad bonanza -- particularly CBS and Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS).
- "Although perhaps a temporary phenomenon, we believe that growth in ad spend from (daily fantasy sports) could drive an incremental 40-60 basis points in third quarter Internet/media ad spend growth," writes Nomura's Anthony DiClemente. "An incremental 50 basis points represents roughly a third of our estimated 1.5% year-over-year Q3 TV advertising growth assumption, with most benefits accruing to broadcasters of the NFL."
- And that means CBS and Disney, with heavy college and pro broadcasts. ESPN has $250M of DraftKings spending already guaranteed, and: “Given its concentration of sports content, we believe CBS could be a primary beneficiary of fantasy football ad spend growth.”
- Fox and NBC should get an uptick, but it may be harder to spot given their wider revenue bases.
- Internet beneficiaries, according to DiClemente, are some typical suspects: Yahoo, along with Facebook and Google.