Sports betting as a category was added to fantasy sports for the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association (FSGA) Industry Awards held in Las Vegas during the 2020 Winter Conference on January 14 and 15. Adding the fast-growing sport bet categories made it 29 total awards voted on by FSGA members, a distinguished media panel and a fan vote across wagering games, web sites-apps and platforms, social media and podcasts, in addition to individual awards. The Top Innovation and Rookie of the Year, joined the Small Business of the Year, as well as the Fantasy Business of the Year and Sports Betting Business of the Year to round out the 29 winners. The complete list of award recipients is listed below. The Sports Techie community blog gives a big virtual congratulations to each well-deserved winner. Sports betting is taking over the American sporting fan experience just as fantasy sports did.
Fantasy Sports and Betting Winners
“In this first full year of expanding the scope of the association to include sports betting, I’m thrilled to see the quality of our nominees and winners,” said FSGA President Paul Charchian. “The innovation and talent we’re seeing is unparalleled and the future of our industry is bright.”
Both ESPN and The Fantasy Footballers gathered five awards each to lead the way.
Honestly, I’ve never heard of The Fantasy Footballers but regardless, they took the Small Business of the Year category for the third straight year, adding to their Most Outstanding Social Media, Best Fantasy Podcast and Coolest Logo wins, the latter a new award. Mike Wright at Footballers won Fantasy Sports Analyst of the Year as voted by the fans.
Everyone knows ESPN and they dominated the media hosting awards. Best Fantasy Sports Host went to Field Yates while Doug Keziran won Best Sports Betting Host. Sports Betting Analyst of the Year was awarded to Chris Fallica and ESPN’s Daily Wager program got the Sports Betting Video Show of the Year. The broadcasting giant is obviously so much more and to showcase their business diversity they were granted Innovation of the Year for the ESPN Fantasy integration of insights with IBM Watson.
Yahoo Fantasy brought home four awards featuring Best Daily Fantasy Sports Game and Best Season-Long Fantasy Sports Game.
Scott Fish at Fanball raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Toys for Tots through his Fantasy Cares program, earning him the honor of FSGA’s Humanitarian of the Year, bravo.
In no surprise, Sports Betting Business of the Year went to FanDuel Group, while DraftKings took home Fantasy Sports Business of the Year. You could probably switch these two awards up and no one would blink.
A company I blogged about this past year, Monkey Knife Fight, gathered both Rookie of the Year and Disruptor of the Year trophies. The Best Content winners were RotoGrinders (for fantasy sports) and The Action Network (for sports betting).
The 2019 FSGA Award Winners:
BEST DAILY FANTASY SPORTS GAME
Yahoo Fantasy
BEST SEASON-LONG FANTASY SPORTS GAME
Yahoo Fantasy
BEST FANTASY CONTENT SITE/APP
RotoGrinders
BEST SPORTS BETTING CONTENT SITE/APP
The Action Network
BEST FANTASY SPORTS SITE/APP
Yahoo Fantasy
BEST SPORTS BETTING SITE/APP
DraftKings Sportsbook
BEST SPORTS BETTING PLATFORM
FanDuel Sportsbook
BEST PRINT PUBLICATION
2019 Rotoworld Fantasy Football Draft Guide
BEST DATA PROVIDER
SportsDataIO
COOLEST LOGO
The Fantasy Footballers
MOST OUTSTANDING SOCIAL MEDIA
The Fantasy Footballers
BEST FANTASY SPORTS PODCAST
The Fantasy Footballers
BEST FANTASY SPORTS RADIO SHOW
SiriusXM Fantasy Football Gameday
BEST SPORTS BETTING PODCAST OR RADIO SHOW
The Action Network Podcast
FANTASY SPORTS VIDEO SHOW OF THE YEAR
Yahoo Fantasy Football Live
SPORTS BETTING VIDEO SHOW OF THE YEAR
ESPN’s Daily Wager
FANTASY ANALYST OF THE YEAR
Jamey Eisenberg (CBS Sports)
PEOPLE’S CHOICE: FANTASY ANALYST OF THE YEAR
Mike Wright (The Fantasy Footballers)
SPORTS BETTING ANALYST OF THE YEAR
Chris Fallica (ESPN)
PEOPLE’S CHOICE: SPORTS BETTING ANALYST OF THE YEAR
Pat Mayo (DraftKings)
FANTASY HOST OF THE YEAR
Field Yates (ESPN)
SPORTS BETTING HOST OF THE YEAR
Doug Kezirian (ESPN)
DISRUPTOR OF THE YEAR
Monkey Knife Fight
HUMANITARIAN OF THE YEAR
Scott Fish
INNOVATION OF THE YEAR
ESPN Fantasy integration of insights by IBM Watson
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Monkey Knife Fight
SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
The Fantasy Footballers
FANTASY BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
DraftKings
SPORTS BETTING BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
FanDuel Group
The FSGA is inducting a new Hall of Fame honoree and will name the Matthew Berry Game Changer Award recipient at their Summer Conference in Dallas-Frisco, Texas on June 15-16. Frisco is home to The Star, the Dallas Cowboys world headquarters.
Original article is available at https://sportstechie.net/sports-betting-added-to-fantasy-sports-at-fsga-best-of-industry-awards-in-vegas/