FanDuel is expanding its responsible gaming outreach with a new partnership featuring Erin Andrews. FanDuel’s Cory Fox, senior vice president of public policy and sustainability, spoke with Covers about the partnership, the company’s RG tools, and how the nation’s highest-grossing sportsbook views entertainment-focused betting.
RB: Erin Andrews is a household name for virtually every American sports fan. What does it mean to have Andrews as a leading face of your responsible gaming effort?
CF: “Our responsible gaming ambassador program is all about raising awareness and also what can happen for folks who have difficulty managing their play. We want those ambassadors to help raise awareness, share stories for our responsible gaming ambassadors who have lived experience of gambling harm, and ultimately help people better understand the risks around gambling and the resources that are available to them through FanDuel and elsewhere.
“We think that education and awareness are really critical. Players should know what it looks like when someone suffers gambling harm, and what the resources and tools are there to manage play on our site and otherwise. And that’s why we’ve partnered with Randy Livingston, that’s why we’ve partnered with Craig Carton and others.
“And so the opportunity to partner with Erin is just amazing because for sports fans, for people particularly who watch the NFL, but really all sports fans, Erin’s such a familiar face and a well respected broadcaster. Bringing her voice helps us connect with our users and bettors around the country to really understand what responsible gaming is, understand the tools that are available, understand what can happen for those who are unable to manage their play, and raise awareness around all of that.”
“It’s just an amazing opportunity and amazing partnership for FanDuel and we’re thrilled to have Erin on board.”
RB: How does adding a high-profile individual help people better understand responsible gaming, a more difficult concept to quantify?
CF: “This is part of our recently rebranded responsible gaming efforts under our strategy, the Play with a Plan moniker. And as part of that, we did a lot of customer research. And one of the things we saw in the customer research is when people initially see the term ‘responsible gaming,’ they don’t think it’s for them, they think it’s for somebody else, because, ‘Hey, I don’t have a problem. I’m just going to ignore all of this.’ And so that’s why we’re now branding under Play with a Plan because everybody should ‘play with a plan.’
“And it’s really just so consistent with that for us to be partnering with Erin, who I think everyone connects to as sports fans and football fans, so that she can really bring that message to everyone. And it’s not just ‘Hey, we’ve got this responsible gaming ambassador.’ It’s ‘No, no, no, it’s Erin Andrews.’ This is for everyone. This is for all sports fans.”
RB: Sportsbooks have evolved so much since 2018, but so too have the in-app resources and tools. Walk me through some of FanDuel’s new RG developments.
CF: “Over the last about 18 months, there have been two really great developments that we’re super proud of.
“One of them is MySpend, which is a way for customers to visualize the spend on the platform over the previous month. And it’s something that we bring to them right within the app. They don’t have to go somewhere, they don’t have to turn it on, but we deliver it to them right there in the app. That product has really had great uptake, it’s well over 45% of folks who are active on the site during the NFL are looking at MySpend at some point.
“The other thing that we rolled out a year ago, but we just continue to see really great engagement with, is a tool that we call Real-Time Check-In. And that tool uses machine learning to project a deposit amount for each user on each day based on their own personalized history, as well as seasonality and bonusing and those sorts of things.
“If a player attempts to deposit an even greater multiple of our projected amount, we’ll check in with them and say, ‘You usually deposit X, you’re attempting to deposit Y, you must either lower your deposit amount or set a deposit limit going forward.’
“So I think that’s a really powerful tool to keep people playing within the baseline that they’ve set for themselves, and to really force them to reckon with any changes in their deposit behavior on the site, to help them manage their play.”
RB: Seeing betting numbers can be arresting in the best way. It makes you pause, and it makes you realize, “What am I really spending on this?” Would you say it goes with the idea that sports betting, and gaming overall, should be treated as disposable income entertainment?
CF: “The truth is it is an entertainment experience. You can have a lot of fun playing at the level that most people play at, which is not huge. I think our average parlay is $15 to $16 a bet. The average player is not playing huge amounts, because you can have a lot of fun without that.”
“If for your $10 or $15 or $20 wager, you get three hours of entertainment, and some of the time you win a few dollars, that’s great, but you’re assuming you’re not going to, I think that’s a really healthy place to be.”
“We want people to play with us for a very long time. The way to do that is to play at the right level for them and come back month after month and year after year to get a great entertainment experience."
