LOS ANGELES – The Clippers and DraftKings officially announced their partnership during a press conference Wednesday before the Clippers’ game against the Rockets.
The agreement marked the Clippers’ first-ever partnership with a one-day fantasy sports website, and DraftKings is the largest United States-based provider of daily fantasy sports contests across a broad range of professional and college sports.
Clippers president of business operations Gillian Zucker and DraftKings CEO Jason Robins discussed the partnership to a room full of media and season ticketholders. As Zucker said, true partnerships are all about the fans.
“Steve Ballmer has said many times over that the Clippers are going to be an innovative organization, that the Clippers are going to be an industry leader in regard to technology and engagement of fans, and that’s what this announcement is all about today,” Zucker said.
The multi-platform partnership, which made DraftKings the official daily fantasy game partner of the Clippers, was made in large part to deepen fan engagement. Zucker said the partnership provides an opportunity to bring once in a lifetime experiences to Clippers fans.
“DraftKings does an amazing job of engaging fans in a way that can’t just happen alone,” Zucker said. “We’re so excited to have (DraftKings) as part of the Clippers family.”
Robins said the core mission at DraftKings is to make games more exciting for the fans and to bring them unique experiences that wouldn’t otherwise be available.
“When we looked at partners we wanted, we wanted to find someone that shared our vision for innovation and looked at the game as something that was constantly evolving, and technology was really a means to making it better and more exciting and finding ways to connect more deeply with the people watching it,” Robins said. “The Clippers hit that in every dimension.”
Robins said he believes the Clippers are the exact organization DraftKings wanted to work with because they’re not afraid to think outside the box.
“I really do believe this is the first year of a multi-year partnership where you’re going to see some really exciting things between the two organizations,” Robins said.
DraftKings will be incorporated with the Clippers through numerous elements, including video board and LED Courtside signage, game day receptions, an extensive digital media package and a Fan Contest hosted on DraftKings.com.
The grand prize will be a trip for two including round trip flights to the final Clippers game of the regular season against Phoenix on April 14, along with tickets to the game, hotel accommodations, ground transportation and Clippers merchandise.
