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NHL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 5, 2018

New York, NY

JACKIE REDMOND: Hello, everybody, and good morning. Happy Monday to those of you joining us here at the Fan Duel sports book at the new Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey. We're going to kick this week off with some good news. And welcome to those of you, as well, joining us on NHL.com or on the Facebook Live stream. My name is Jackie Redmond. I am a host at the NHL Network. You can catch my show 4:00 to 6:00 eastern time Monday to Friday. I'm going to get that shameless self-promotion in there while I can.

As most of you have probably already read this morning, the NHL has announced a multi-year partnership with Fan Duel, making Fan Duel the exclusive daily fantasy and sports betting partner of the NHL. There is also a separate deal with Fan Duel and the New Jersey Devils, and this is more than just about the partnership, this is about how these partnerships enhance the experience for fans of the game that we all know and love, the game of hockey. There will be content surrounding major events like the Winter Classic, the All-Star Game, and even the Wednesday Night hockey game, as well.

Joining me here to talk about how exciting this is and what it all means is the commissioner, Gary Bettman, fresh off of his trip to Finland; our CEO of Fan Duel, Matt King; the COO, Kip Levin; and then Hugh Weber, the president of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the New Jersey Devils Prudential Center; and a colleague of mine, Pete Jensen, who is NHL.com's senior fantasy editor and writer, as well as one half of the cohost team of the brand new fantasy hockey podcast, as well, NHL Fantasy on Ice, so thank you guys for being here for this panel. I appreciate it.

And Mondays are a bit of a thing for you lately, Gary. Last week you had the landmark partnership with MGM Resorts, this week we announce a partnership with Fan Duel, and next Monday you are going to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, so I wanted to before we get started to congratulate you on an incredible accomplishment. You must be very excited about that.

GARY BETTMAN: I'm very excited, but I'm also very excited to partner with our new partners at Fan Duel and with the New Jersey Devils. This is, I guess, a little bit of a historic day in the sports betting marketplace because it's the first partnership among a sports league, a sports team in that league, and a sports betting partner, and I think the coming together, particularly with the overriding element of daily sports fantasy, which Fan Duel is known for, is a great opportunity for our fans.

JACKIE REDMOND: What do you think excites you most about the opportunity to bring Fan Duel into the mix for even just the general hockey fan?

GARY BETTMAN: Well, there's two parts to this. One, as the sports betting environment increases, meaning we now have teams in two markets where sports betting is legal, Nevada and New Jersey, as it continues to evolve, to have the daily sports, sports fantasy element everywhere gives our fans an opportunity to interact with Fan Duel, and Fan Duel has made an amazing transition from daily fantasy sports to sports betting, doing both extraordinarily well, the leaders in technology in both spaces. So for us, the opportunity to grow with them in this environment is going to be terrific.

JACKIE REDMOND: I imagine, Hugh, you echo that sentiment in terms of your separate deal with the New Jersey Devils?

HUGH WEBER: Yeah, so five years ago when Josh Harris and David Blitzer purchased the New Jersey Devils and became the managing partners, we have been hyper-focused on the fan experience. We've made over $20 million in capital improvements to the Prudential Center, including the world's largest scoreboard, and we see this partnership as an extension of that, this fan experience. We think that if you look at over time, again, how Europeans take in sports and use sports betting as part of engagement with their teams, that this is the future of the league and the future of the experience for Devils fans.

JACKIE REDMOND: The way we watch hockey is seemingly changing so quickly, the way that fans engage with the game. Matt, from your perspective, why is it an exciting time for you and the right decision for you to sort of partner with the National Hockey League?

MATT KING: We approach every decision that we make and frankly every partner that we select through the lens of the fan, as well. We look at each partnership in terms of is this going to make the fan experience on our platform better, and the answer in the case of working with the Devils and the NHL was absolutely. In the case of sports betting, it's a new market, so it's really important that we build trust. We have an incredible degree of trust with our users today, but sports betting is something new, and one of the things that we want to make sure that we differentiate is frankly fans that want to partner with a legal and regulated entity like ourselves versus those that might use an offshore book, and frankly the imprint of the NHL and the Devils is a huge differentiator in terms of building that trust.

And then our belief is also the right way to build the best product is in collaboration with the teams in the leagues around how do we work better together in order to deliver an even better product than what is out there today.

JACKIE REDMOND: And I mentioned off the top that part of this, as well, is going to involve the major events, the Winter Classic, the All-Star Game. Can you just kind of touch on maybe, Kip, what exactly that means for customers of Fan Duel that can anticipate those things?

KIP LEVIN: Yeah, I mean, so obviously these are huge marquee events. The NHL does an amazing job in terms of having an incredible fan base, and we've got a number of different products now. Obviously sports betting for people who are in New Jersey, we've got our sort of classic traditional daily fantasy contest that we're going to be able to do, sort of exclusive contests around the major events, and we have other things like free-to-play games.

There's a lot of different ways in which we engage with our customers and fans, and we're excited to work in partnership with them to wrap them around those events.

JACKIE REDMOND: Gary, what is exciting about taking those marquee events and making them even bigger and better and easier for fans to engage with?

GARY BETTMAN: Well, anything we can do to give our fans a more connected, better experience, bring them to the game with even more interest, maybe bring in some casual fans who haven't focused on hockey but will use either daily fantasy sports or sports betting to say maybe I'm going to take a look and have some fun, and once we get you slightly, I think we've got you hooked.

So having to partner, having an opportunity to partner with leaders in the space for us is exciting, and to bring the Fan Duel brand to our marquee events, our tentpole events, we think enhances them, as well.

JACKIE REDMOND: Pete, you're the fantasy expert here on the panel. What does this relationship look like for you moving forward in terms of how this will change the way that fans can interact with the game and participate in the game of hockey?

PETE JENSEN: Yeah, fan engagement is what fantasy is all about, including not only rooting for the team that you love but other teams around the league and getting to know the players, statistical trends, the lineup trends. There's so much that goes into fantasy that caters to general knowledge of the NHL, and it's the fastest sport in the world. It's so much fun to watch, and I'm just excited to be able to partner with you guys and gear our content towards these specific games and contests so that fans can have the best time possible.

JACKIE REDMOND: It's going to give you a lot more to talk about now on your fantasy podcast, which just gets started. For anybody that's watching, when can they catch that podcast? I'm sure you'll be talking about this news on your next episode.

PETE JENSEN: Absolutely. We're doing another episode tomorrow. It's Tuesdays and Fridays. We preview the Tuesday slate of games and also the Saturday slate, both busy game nights each week. We talk about all the trends. It's called NHL Fantasy on Ice. You subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts, Apple, iTunes, Google podcasts. It's a great initiative for the league, and it's something that -- for the commissioner, I mean, this has been an investment in fantasy coverage as well as the partnerships. I mean, it's something to see the long-term vision of the league. It's really encouraging to see from a fan engagement standpoint.

JACKIE REDMOND: And it's good, too, for casual fans that maybe have never engaged in fantasy or betting before to have a resource like your podcast to sort of learn how to go about doing that, how it all works and how they can get in on the action, for lack of a better way to put it.

Hugh, in terms of individual teams, how do you kind of see this partnership playing out for individual teams and how they can partner with Fan Duel? How is that different from the overarching partnership?

HUGH WEBER: Well, obviously the future and how prolific it becomes across the U.S. is going to depend on which teams can participate, so obviously the Las Vegas Knights, our partners, have a very mature base of people who are doing sports gambling, but we're going to see this roll out over time. We don't know for sure, but I think the success of what's happening here in New Jersey and candidly how we engage and how we can help grow this business will be helpful for those other teams as they roll out.

JACKIE REDMOND: Part of this is about data; last week we talked about MGM Resorts, and people kept talking about data, data. To be honest, what does mean? Does anyone care to explain what that means, access to exclusive NHL data? What does that mean?

GARY BETTMAN: Well, first of all, our arrangement contemplates a live verified field of view of all of our data in real time that we currently have, but in the final analysis, it tells you what's going on in the game, and this is becoming a data-driven world, particularly among millenials, and to have this connection to get inside the game, see more and see how you can match your skills against others in evaluating that data just becomes another way to connect with the game.

JACKIE REDMOND: That's cool. I like that a lot. Did you have a follow or no?

PETE JENSEN: Well, just for the fantasy owners out there and everybody that plays these games, I mean, how do you view fantasy not only in the short-term but also the long-term just as a fan engagement tool?

GARY BETTMAN: It's another connection point, particularly for people who are glued to their phones and their laptops --

JACKIE REDMOND: So everyone.

GARY BETTMAN: But it's also, we live in an environment, particularly with the technology advances that we've had in delivering the game where people want what they want when they want it, how they want it, and the fact that if you live in New Jersey, you can come to this facility and place a bet and watch games, or you can do it on your phone with mobile, or you can play fantasy sports from anywhere, most jurisdictions, and you can do this all at your own time at your own pace and at your own place.

So the opportunities to engage with the sport, connect with the sport, connect with the players, and do your own thing has never been greater, and Fan Duel is delivering that experience.

HUGH WEBER: Another thing, too, is generationally, we're seeing Gen-Z'ers coming along, and this is how they live and take on sports. It's not just sitting in front of one media device. They have multiple. I have two teenaged boys --

GARY BETTMAN: But the gen-Z'ers are a little too young right now.

HUGH WEBER: Kind of future proofing what our sport and the experience feels like, but they take the world in through all these different micro moments within a game.

JACKIE REDMOND: Yeah, and I think, too, even for people that are a little bit older, if you can't watch the game or you can't be at a game, you can still engage with the game, and that's part of I think what makes this attractive, as well.

For you guys, I'm just curious, what have you noticed about the sports betting landscape and how it has changed over the last little while with partnerships like this one with the NHL?

KIP LEVIN: Well, obviously New Jersey is off to a really fast start. We knew that there was pent-up demand for it here. I think it's by far exceeded our expectations, both in retail and in online. Obviously we're sort of an online based business, but the retail business has been the leader in the state so far and doing really well.

We're enthusiastic. I would say how it relates to data and some of the other things we were talking about, probably one of the trends that we're most excited about is in play, meaning people betting during the game, so we're already seeing upwards of around 40 percent of all of our betting happening during the game, which makes the deal we have here and access to the data really, really important, but it also means that people are getting it and figuring it out and really engaging with sports betting.

JACKIE REDMOND: For anyone that's watching or that's here that might not know what that in-game betting means, that would essentially be like if one period is over and you're going to the second period, you could essentially place a bet on how many goals were going to be scored in the next period. Just wanted to clarify.

GARY BETTMAN: But also the fact that you're getting our data from us and you're getting it live goes to your point of trust. People know that they can trust what they're getting from you and how they're interacting with Fan Duel.

MATT KING: I think the other thing you're starting to see is you're starting to be able to answer some of the what-if questions. As people have talked about legalizing sports betting and what's that going to do to the game, and one of the things you're starting to see is we're seeing a significant expansion in the sports betting market. There's big numbers out there about how much people are betting with offshore books.

The reality is there's a lot of people that wanted to follow the law and didn't sports bet, and now that it's legal, they're coming into the marketplace, they're engaging, they're having a great experience, and so it's really nice to be able to start to answer some of those questions, too, that previously frankly were hard to know.

GARY BETTMAN: And I think the early data is telling us that people who are betting are engaging more with their favorite sports.

JACKIE REDMOND: Sounds like a win-win partnership, right?

MATT KING: It does.

JACKIE REDMOND: Anything else you guys wanted to add to this panel?

PETE JENSEN: Yeah, so I understand there's going to be a special single-game fantasy contests geared toward some of these major events?

MATT KING: Absolutely.

PETE JENSEN: In general, how do you see these contests and just your overall strategy helping not only grow the sport of hockey but also the DFS partnership and DFS participation?

MATT KING: Sure, so if you look at kind of what we've been doing as a business for the last year or so, it's really about driving increased engagement through product innovation. A lot of that product innovation comes around making fantasy in all sports more accessible for the casual user, and that's things like integrating research into the product, so we launched a guru product for NFL that's going to be coming to hockey, but basically helps people pick their team with less research and helps kind of pull some of that outside research into the app.

It's also going to -- we're going to experience with some changes in the underlying game mechanics to, again, make it easier for people to build credible lineups and really have a lineup that they can engage with. So kind of you're going to see a lot of product innovation around how do we make the game as accessible as possible and kind of the walking-around saying we use is we want the average sports fan to be able to pick a credible lineup in less than five minutes, so if we can deliver on that, we're going to drive a lot more participation than we have in the past.

PETE JENSEN: Stats are the biggest part of fantasy for sure.

JACKIE REDMOND: And for anyone that's new to it, right, that's something that will help fans feel a little bit more comfortable entering sports betting and daily fantasy in a way that if they don't know everything or they're not an expert, a fantasy expert like yourself, Pete, that they have tools that will allow them to sort of engage with the game and learn how to participate.

MATT KING: That's right, and one of the reasons single game is important, particularly in hockey, one of the differences of hockey is it's probably the strongest regional association of any of the big sports, and so what we see is players play more in Boston when the Bruins are playing, and so having single game is a product we can deliver, allows us to really tap into one of the things that makes hockey great, which is that regional love, and so we're excited about kind of the ability to use single game as a way to kind of really leverage that.

JACKIE REDMOND: Gary, back-to-back Mondays you make huge announcements pertaining to new partnerships with the NHL. What can hockey fans expect from the NHL moving forward in this sports betting landscape?

GARY BETTMAN: We want to continue to make sure that our fans have every opportunity to engage with our game virtually any way they want to, and to the extent that we can form partnerships or develop new data to make the game more exciting, more intriguing than it already is are things we're going to strive for because it's all about the fan experience.

JACKIE REDMOND: One more question for you. Was there a particular moment when you realized this is what fans want, and I'm going to start pursuing kind of -- I know there was the law part of it --

GARY BETTMAN: Well, the law had -- a lot of people in the last few months have said they don't understand my conversion because the perception was that we were the most anti-sports betting and anti-gambling, but I pointed out to a number of people, we were the first sports league to put a team in Las Vegas, so be a little careful, but the moment -- and the team has done extraordinarily well. But the moment the Supreme Court ruled that sports betting was going to be legal subject to state regulation, we decided we needed to evolve with the times and we needed to get in front of this and be proactive in terms of developing important partnerships like this one.

JACKIE REDMOND: And you certainly have done exactly that. If there's anything anyone wants to add on the panel --

HUGH WEBER: I think Gary missed next Monday he'll actually be inducted into the Hall of Fame. That was his next announcement.

GARY BETTMAN: That's not an announcement. And hopefully nothing happens that makes it newsworthy.

HUGH WEBER: I thought that was --

JACKIE REDMOND: It's newsworthy regardless. Congratulations again on an incredible career so far, and thank you guys for joining us, and thank you guys for coming out and to those of you watching on NHL.com or Facebook Live. We appreciate you coming out. We're going to have a quick photo op up here and then there will be media avails one-on-one following the photo op.

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