Fantasy football

Who says advertising isn’t effective? In fact, for some companies, it may be too effective.

Last year at this time, not many people outside of hard-core sports fans had heard of FanDuel or DraftKings. But as football season approached, the two online fantasy sports companies geared up for a massive advertising push. Anyone who even peeked at an NFL telecast last fall had a good chance of seeing one of their ubiquitous ads.

“Flush with cash from media investors,” the Wall Street Journal reported this week, “FanDuel and DraftKings together spent an estimated $500 million on advertising last year. … The boom increased brand recognition and the number of users enormously.”

But the ad campaigns also caught the attention of several state attorneys general, who began investigating whether the websites violated gambling laws by allowing participants to cash in on their daily virtual sports teams.

Several states, including New York, eventually forced both businesses to cease offering their services to their residents. The companies also abandoned the Nevada market when state officials concluded that FanDuel and Draft Kings needed permission to operate from gaming authorities.

As football season approaches this year, the two companies have dialed back, cutting ad spending by more than half, the Journal reports. Both FanDuel and DraftKings seek to “limit the impression … that they are peddling a form of gambling,” the paper notes.

Many football fans will be relieved to learn that when they tune in to watch their favorite NFL team this fall, they won’t face a constant barrage of 30-second spots touting the jackpots available to fantasy sports players. And it’s a good bet that if executives at FanDuel and DraftKings had it do all over again, they might never have embarked on their aggressive approach in the first place.

It’s a cautionary tale: Sometimes, the louder you shout, the bigger the target on your back.