To: Interested Parties
From: The Parkside Group, LLC
Date: June 3, 2016
Re: Fantasy Sports Survey Findings
At the request of Fantasy Sports for All, The Parkside Group conducted a poll to survey attitudes of New York State voters likely to participate in the 2016 General Election. Key findings of this survey include:
60% of New Yorkers Support Allowing Adults To Play Fantasy Sports Online. By a 28-point margin, voters believe that New Yorkers over the age of 18 should be permitted to play online fantasy sports. Overall 60% of likely voters support this idea, while 32% oppose. The strongest supporters of allowing adults to play fantasy sports online include voters aged 18-44 (72% support) and those who have already played online fantasy sports (90% support). There was majority support for allowing New Yorkers to play online fantasy sports across all geographic regions and political parties.
New Yorkers Support Sensible Regulation of Online Fantasy Sports. By a better than 3-1 margin, New Yorkers support regulating online fantasy sports (70% favor/23% oppose). A majority of every income, party, geography, ethnicity, age, and gender group supports regulating online fantasy sports. Other proposals supported by New York voters include:
- Requiring online fantasy sports companies to register with the state — 75% support
- Require online fantasy sports companies to implement standards to ensure participants are over the age of 18 and meet other eligibility requirements — 85% support
- Require online fantasy sports companies to pay annual state taxes and fees — 75% support
Voters Want To Keep Fantasy Sports Separate From Casinos & Racetracks. By a 43-point margin, New Yorkers oppose efforts to limit online fantasy sports to casinos and racetracks. Overall, 65% of voters oppose the proposal, while 22% support it. Opposition is strongest among Republicans (67% opposed), voters aged 18-44 (74% opposed), and upstate (75% opposed in the Central New York/Capital District/North Country regions and 73% opposed in the Western New York/Finger Lakes/Southern Tier regions).
Many Fantasy Sports Players Will Hold Lawmakers Accountable For Their Votes. Among those voters who have played online fantasy sports 47% would be less likely to vote for a state legislator who wants to make it illegal to participate in online fantasy sports contests in New York, while just 2% said it would make them more likely to vote for someone (the remainder of those who have played online fantasy sports either had no opinion or said that it would have no effect on their vote in November). According to industry estimates, out of the nearly 14.5 Million New Yorkers over the age of 18, there are approximately 1,000,000 New Yorkers who have played online fantasy sports.
A note about methodology. The poll was conducted June 1-2, 2016 among 800 likely General Election voters. At the 95% confidence level, the margin of error in the survey is 3.46%. The margin of error is higher among sub-groups. This survey was drawn from a sample of voters with a history of voting in even-year elections. In addition, screening questions were employed to identify those voters in the sample most likely to vote this November.
About The Parkside Group. Described as “New York’s leading full-service public affairs firm” by Campaigns & Elections magazine, the Parkside Group has been providing electoral, corporate, and advocacy clients with public relations, public affairs, government relations, campaign management, quantitative research and advertising services for more than 15 years.