Despite the pandemic slowing down business, and well, everything, some industries are seeing an uptick in interest & growth, business, and therefore, advertising spend. One of these industries is the sports betting industry, and it doesn’t show signs it’s going to slow down.
According to a report from Media Radar, sports betting & gambling brands have ramped up advertising spending about 82% year-over-year, since June 2020. However, most of this spending growth (about 90%) is attributed to just three companies — FanDuel, Bet365, and DraftKings. Combined, these three betting giants have spent more than $200 million USD on marketing.
Where are they spending the money? Well, over 90% of the industry still spends on traditional media — think television commercials, advertising spots, and broadcasting partnerships.
“The resumption of major sports such as the NBA, MLB and the NHL in the third quarter, as well as the start of the NFL season, generated tremendous customer engagement,” says Robbins.
A lot majority of this growth can be attributed to the return of a somewhat regular sports schedule, with NHL playoffs kicking off last June and a delayed NBA championship due to the pandemic.
DraftKings thrives in 2020
DraftKings has had a particularly successful year, with revenue growing from 25-30% in 2020. In 2021, they’re projected to bring in pro forma revenue of about $750-850 million, which would account for growth of about 45%. In 2020, they also became a publicly-traded company, and brought on Michael Jordan as an investor and board advisor — undoubtedly a sign of current & future success.
This year saw big leaps in sports betting legalization throughout the United States, which definitely had an impact on betting in the region. DraftKings in particular received licenses to operate in a number of states, and introduced mobile betting in Illinois, Tennessee, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Colorado. Altogether, these states account for 20% of the U.S. population.
“The resumption of major sports such as the NBA, MLB and the NHL in the third quarter, as well as the start of the NFL season, generated tremendous customer engagement…In addition to our year-over-year pro forma revenue growth of 42%, DraftKings recorded an increase in monthly unique payers of 64% to over 1 million, demonstrating the effectiveness of our data-driven sales and marketing approach. Our product offerings and scalable platform provide a distinctive and personalized experience for customers across the ten states where we operate mobile sports betting today, and we look forward to entering additional jurisdictions at the earliest opportunity,” says Jason Robbins, DraftKings CEO & Board Chairman.
