ESPN strikes fantasy sports deal with DraftKings

US sports broadcaster ESPN has entered into a partnership with daily fantasy sports operator DraftKings.

Under the agreement, DraftKings will become the official daily fantasy sports offering across all ESPN platforms.

The deal will feature branding and promotional opportunities across multiple ESPN and DraftKings platforms, including integration into digital properties and television programming.

ESPN has been providing fantasy sports games and content in the US for over 20 years. The broadcaster says that more than 12m fans currently participate in the top four games across ESPN Fantasy, while its ESPN Fantasy Football game registers 25m transactions and 47m alerts per week.

The new partnership comes as reports in the US suggest that DraftKings will no longer be receiving investment from ESPN or its parent company, Walt Disney Company.

Earlier this year, Disney announced plans to invest up to $250m (€223.7m) in a deal that, at the time, valued DraftKings at approximately $900m.

However, reports this week suggest DraftKings is in advanced talks to raise a large round of funding from other strategic investors.