The Arena Football League has signed a host of new rights partnerships which are designed to enhance the game experience for fans of the indoor American football league.
The league has partnered with daily fantasy sports operator DraftKings, which will launch an AFL fantasy game and stream games through its app.
The fantasy product and the streaming service are expected to launch during the 2019 season, DraftKings becomes the league’s exclusive daily fantasy partner and a league-wide marketing partner.
The league has also teamed up with social media platform Facebook, which will stream 12 games live across the US through its Watch service and globally via the AFL Show page. The AFL will also engage with fans on Facebook through Groups and Stories.
A partnership has also been signed between the AFL and Vegas Stats and Information Network (VSiN), a source for sports gambling news, data, analysis and content.
VSiN will create dynamic content that will provide fans with information about teams, players, matchups and more. VSiN will produce pregame shows and segments each week, with content to include preview betting odds and trends, as well as other co-produced live content focused on in-game betting.
Finally, the league has partnered with sports and betting-related services company Sportradar. Sportradar will build a new application programming interface for the league, which can be licensed to new partners for the automated distribution of data.
The 2018 AFL season gets underway today (Friday) when the Washington Valor hosts the Baltimore Brigade.