by Wayne Friedman
Source:www.mediapost.com, January 2022
Sports gaming and wagering marketing on TV networks — from traditional casino and new sports wagering operations — has risen threefold, driving growth of NFL and college football programming over the last four months of the TV season.
This totaled $175.7 million in national TV ad spend, according to iSpot.tv, compared to $60.3 million a year ago.
Traditional casinos have ramped up their online operations efforts — to $89.4 million, up from $6.9 million a year ago. Collectively, there were 16,548 airings of TV commercials this season from this category versus 4,994 airings a year ago.
Caesars Entertainment was the biggest spender for the current season, at $61 million, followed by BET MGM at $21.9 million; and Wynn BET at $1.4 million.
Much of this rise comes as more states legitimize sports waging. There are just under 20 states with legalized sports gambling, while another 20 or so have legislation pending.
In addition, sports leagues and TV networks are aligning themselves with sports wagering marketers.
Looking at newer non-traditional sports gaming and wagering operations, FanDuel is at $53.7 million in ad spend for the most recent period — with 5,936 airings, earning 3 billion impressions. DraftKings is at $32.6 million — with 4,554 airings and 1.9 billion impressions.
A year before, DraftKings was at $35.7 million, while FanDuel came in at $17.7 million in national TV ad spending.
The bulk of all sports wagering for both years went to NFL programming, college football and Major League Baseball.
