Two Leagues Rising To The Top Of The Sport

Drone racing is becoming something of a sports craze, with two leagues getting set to battle it out for viewers and sponsors.

The Drone Racing League and DR1 Racing are vying to be the favored platform, according to a piece by Forbes contributor Darren Heitner. While DRL was out of the gate first through its partnership with Allianz and the televised series of races which concluded in July, DR1 is expected to make an announcement soon that it has secured logistics company DHL as a title sponsor. Mountain Dew has already reportedly spent more than a million dollars to be associated with a DR1.

Pilots are making money as well. According to Heitner, Luke Bannister, the top-ranked DR1 pilot, is taking home a six-figure income from sponsorships, which does not include his earnings from winning races. He was awarded $250,000 for winning the World Drone Prix in Dubai in 2016.

That was a special circumstance, Heitner said, but both DRL and DR1 are offering prizes of $100,000 to the winners of their respective series.

The attraction to sponsors is television, and drone racing seems to be a "made for television" sport. DRL has agreements with ESPN, SKY and ProSieben in Germany. DR1 has deals with Eurosports, Fox Sports Asia, and streams much of its content online through Twitch.

The big question that remains is sustainability. While drone racing is hot right now, what is not known is whether it can last through the long haul, or if its popularity will have the same life as the batteries that power the small aircraft around the racetracks.

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