The National Hockey League is prominently featuring daily sports fantasy Web site DraftKings on its mobile Web site and application as it leverages the correlation between fan engagement and fantasy sports.

DraftKings, which has long offered a mobile version of its NHL game, now will receive prominent brand placement across the NHL?s digital platforms, including NHL.com, NHL Mobile and the NHL?s Twitter and Facebook properties. The move enables the NHL to boost its outreach to fans who increasingly heighten their sporting event experience on mobile and are active in the booming daily fantasy sports market.

?We?ve been involved in season-long fantasy and feel this appeals to avid fans who continue to watch on a nightly basis,? said Chris Golier, vice president of mobile marketing and strategy at the NHL. ?We?ve done some mini-fantasy games which saw great participation.?

?If you look at the average age of traditional fantasy players ? the core demo is 36 to 50,? he said. ?Daily paid fantasy tends to skew much younger. The game style appeals to this new generation of digital natives who do not exhibit the behavior of sticking out a full season of fantasy.

?We want to make sure the up and coming generation of NHL fans are being served and find a fun way to compliment watching the games on TV or their digital devices,? he said.

DraftKings also becomes an official presenting sponsor of daily video previews for each regular-season matchup on NHL.com, NHL Mobile and the NHL app and on ?fantasy players to watch? segments on NHL Network?s NHL Live show.

Mobile-based and daily fantasy games are helping to drive the steady, continued increase in the number of fantasy-sports participants in the United States and Canada.

More than 41 million people participate in fantasy-sports, according to Ipso Public Affairs, up about 13 percent from 2012 and a 25 percent jump from 2010.

In July, Sports Illustrated unveiled FanNation, a free mobile application for daily fantasy gameplay available on mobile devices and the Web.

The unit of Time Inc. partnered with TopLine Game Labs to create the app, which features a suite of daily games devoted to baseball, football, basketball and hockey and allows fans to compete for bragging rights and cash prizes.

The app?s first released game, Baseball Throwdown, was played by creating a roster made up of three major league players ? pitcher, infielder, and outfielder ? who the fan believed would exceed their stat projections for that day?s game.

The fan that accepted a challenge had to select three players as well, but could not choose any players already selected by their opponent. Each contest lasted for one day and was tied to that day?s scheduled professional baseball games. 

By centering the contests on one day?s worth of games, fans had to leverage their baseball knowledge of specific matchups, such as a hitter?s performance against a specific pitcher, rather than relying on seasonal average.  

?It?s a matter of going where the fans are,? said Jeremy Elbaum, vice president of business development for Boston-based DraftKings. 

?Tightening our connection with the NHL empowers us to introduce our mobile offerings to fans already on their devices who may have been unaware of the opportunity to play daily fantasy sports.

?Increasingly, fans are using their mobile devices both at games and at home to keep up with their favorite teams,? he said. ?For DraftKings, it makes perfect sense to go where the fans are ? increasingly, consuming content on their mobile device.?