In the months since daily fantasy sports blitzed mainstream media with an aggressive marketing campaign, DraftKings, one of the industry's top brands, had enjoyed a lucrative advertising partnership with ESPN as the network's "official daily fantasy sports offering."
According to Yahoo Finance, that relationship ended this week when ESPN severed ties with the embattled company barely a month into the exclusive deal, which was announced in June and went into effect in January. The move is perceived as a cost-cutting measure initiated by DraftKings, the report said, as it attempts to shift resources toward fighting its mounting legal battles.