DraftKings: Fans Still Planning To Prioritize NFL Over The Masters

• The Masters will be in the fall for the first time in history due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The final round will land on an NFL Sunday and the Master’s has worked to have the tournament air earlier on Sunday to avoid major conflicts with live NFL games.
• DraftKings surveyed fans to see between the Masters and NFL Sunday, which would get their attention and the NFL won big.

NEW YORK – For the first time in history the Masters will be in November with the final round falling on an NFL Sunday causing fans to choose between the two events.

The 2020 Masters is scheduled for November 9-15, 2020 as opposed to the normal April timing of the tournament due to the coronavirus and it will now have to compete with the normal fall football-packed weekend.

On top of having to deal with NFL games that are normally not going on during the Masters, there are COVID-19 protocols that limit fans that will be in-person so broadcast is the most important part of giving this event to fans.

“Given the circumstances brought about by the pandemic, the delivery of quality content is as important as ever to the storytelling of the Masters Tournament,” said Fred Ridley, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club. “While we will dearly miss our patrons at Augusta National this fall, we are excited to showcase what promises to be a truly memorable Masters in a variety of ways for viewers around the world.”

The tournament will be aired on CBS and the network has already planned out how to avoid conflict of the final round of the Masters with the National Football League games on that Sunday.

The coverage of the Masters will start at 10 a.m. EST on Sunday which is three hours earlier than the first three rounds to not overlap with the highest-rated programming in TV entertainment, live NFL games.

What Will Fans Be Watching?

With football bringing in almost $100 billion worth of bets at domestic and offshore sportsbooks each year, the Masters are fighting a hard battle. The legal sports betting company DraftKings was able to survey over 1,000 people who are fans of both sports to see their perspective on the overlap of sports events for the weekend.

From the Red Zone vs. Green Jacket survey, they found that 62% of fans favor the April time frame of the Masters’ tournament while only 9% prefer this November start date. Also, 79% would rather see their favorite NFL team win as opposed to the 16% that prefer to watch their favorite golfer win in the Masters. Most importantly, 53% of fans say they are most likely to prioritize watching the NFL than the Masters.

Even though a majority of respondents ranking the Masters as the most important event on that Sunday, it seems that most of them will tune into the regular-season NFL games before watching the most prestigious golf betting event’s final round on November 15, 2020.

News tags: COVID-19 | DraftKings | Fred Ridley | golf | Golf Betting | NFL | The Masters