Pacers' fantasy sports deal no longer a dream

Pacers Sports & Entertainment said Wednesday it has signed a multi-year deal with FanDuel, a leader in one-day fantasy sports.

The marketing agreement will prominently feature FanDuel at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and starts with the upcoming 2015-16 Indiana Pacers season.

As part of the partnership, FanDuel will be the presenting sponsor of Pacers.com.

FanDuel signage will be displayed throughout Bankers Life and be part of pregame and halftime scoreboard features. FanDuel will also have Pacers radio spots.

"Teaming up with the Pacers for the upcoming season is a huge win for us at FanDuel," said Nigel Eccles, CEO of FanDuel, in a statement announcing the partnership. "The Indiana Pacers have an extremely dedicated fan base and we believe that our partnership will give us the chance to provide Pacers fans with unrivaled opportunities and experiences."

The Star reported in March that the Pacers were in negotiations with FanDuel. At that time, Todd Taylor, chief sales and marketing officer for Pacers Sports & Entertainment, said he would like to see the deal pull in six figures or more.

Financial details of the agreement were not revealed Wednesday.

Here is the story originally published March 3.

FanDuel has succeeded by giving its fans a short-term option: one-day fantasy sports.

The Indiana Pacers are eying a longer-term commitment from the New York-based leader in the industry of daily fantasy sports – a lucrative sponsorship deal.

The team said Monday it is in early talks with FanDuel and hopes to have a deal worked out by next season. But it could happen sooner.

"We are in constant communication," said Todd Taylor, chief sales and marketing officer for Pacers Sports & Entertainment. "These deals sort of pop up sometimes. We would want to make sure we've crossed all of our t's and dotted our i's. But if they called us up tomorrow, we would want to move as quickly as possible."

Move quickly toward a deal that Taylor said he'd like to see pull in six figures or more for the Pacers. In return, FanDuel would likely get exposure through signage and more inside Bankers Life Fieldhouse, both on and off the court.

FanDuel, a start-up company that quadrupled its annual revenue to $57.3 million in 2014, offers one-day leagues with no season-long commitments. League pricing starts at $1 and the site says it pays out $10 million in weekly cash prizes.

Daily fantasy sports are legal in almost every state, including Indiana. And their popularity is starting to soar, especially among young adult males.

"This whole fantasy sports thing has just exploded," said Daniel McQuiston, a marketing professor at Butler University. "You've got these young people with shorter attention spans looking for what I guess we can call techno-entertainment."

A FanDuel-Pacers deal would benefit both, he said.

"Obviously, for the Pacers, it gets them revenue," McQuiston said. "It gets both of them exposure. If all of a sudden people who are going to the Pacers games see FanDuel and see it advertised, they think, 'Hmmm let me do this.' "

In the NBA, the Pacers would be among the earliest teams to venture into the fantasy sports world. FanDuel signed its first NBA team sponsorship with the Orlando Magic in August. It now has several other teams on board, including the Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks.

The Orlando deal, worth $2 million annually, was secured just days after the NBA lifted its ban against teams selling sponsorships to fantasy sports game companies.

"After you hear the idea, it makes sense," said Taylor. "It's the things your friends have said before."

They are more committed to watching a team, more deeply rooted in the outcome if they have a little money on the line.

Fans consume 40 percent more sports content — across all media — once they start playing FanDuel, according to company statistics.

The Pacers aren't committed to FanDuel. Taylor emphasized the negotiations are in their "infancy." There are other options for the team, such as DraftKings or DailyMVP.

The appeal with FanDuel is its connection to the NBA, Taylor said. In November, the league announced it had become an equity investor in FanDuel.

Should a Pacers deal come to fruition, what it might look like is tough to say, Taylor said.

"Is it a season long or multi-year deal?" he said. "We still plan to get into the playoffs, would there be some (added benefit) to that? We would want it to be six figures plus. It all depends on how aggressive we will be."

FanDuel wasn't ready to talk yet about a possible Pacers partnership or what it might involve.

"That would be premature," said Justine Sacco, spokeswoman for the company.

In Orlando, FanDuel gets prominent exposure of its brand at the Amway Center on the court. It also sponsors the North Club Bar at the center, where fans get up-to-date stats on their favorite players.

When FanDuel signed the deal with the Magic, it talked about how such partnerships are beneficial.

"One-day fantasy basketball is an exploding category for us," FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles told NBA.com. "This partnership helps us…build out the FanDuel brand."

Follow Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow.