How DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars are battling for Super Bowl supremacy

The NFL’s official gambling partners are all hoping to cash in this Super Bowl with legalized sports betting more popular than ever before. FanDuel, DraftKings and Caesars Entertainment are taking different marketing approaches as they attempt to lure millions of potential gamblers to their platforms, placing their own bets on whether it’s more effective to run a pricey in-game ad, pregame spot, or both. “They’re using the Super Bowl as somewhat of a coming-out party,” David Carter, a sports business professor at the University of Southern California, told Ad Age of the three brands. “This is the first Super Bowl where you really felt that legalized gambling is a viable alternative to the office pool.” Long an opponent of legalized sports betting for fear it would ruin the integrity of the game, the NFL this season finally embraced the space by allowing seven sportsbooks to air up to six commercials during individual games for the first time. That agreement helped the league net a record $1.8 billion in sponsorship revenue, according to IEG, a sponsorship consultancy. Last year, DraftKings became the first sports betting and daily fantasy brand to air a commercial during the Super Bowl. It aired two 15-second ads with spokeswoman Jessie Coffield speaking directly into the camera about a free fourth quarter prediction challenge in which viewers could guess, for example, who would score the last touchdown of the game. On Sunday, DraftKings is expected to be the only betting brand with both a pregame and national in-game spot, the latter of which cost brands up to $7 million for 30 seconds of airtime on NBC. It is taking more of a creative route in this year’s Super Bowl spot, by introducing a leather-clad spokescharacter called the “Goddess of Fortune” with agency VaynerMedia. The spot, which promotes a free $1 million bet, was released Wednesday. “At first you have to educate what it is you’re all about and maybe there was that look and feel to that last year because gambling was still on its way in,” Carter said. “It’s one thing to have a shotgun blast and let people know you’re out there, but at some point thereafter, you’ve got to let them know what it is that differentiates you from the competition.” Sports betting currently is legal and active in 30 states (nine more than during last year's Super Bowl), and New York and Louisiana have introduced mobile sports betting in recent months. According to the respective brands, DraftKings’ mobile sportsbook is available in 17 states; Caesars in 16; and FanDuel in 14. “It feels like there’s been a tipping point in the last year where sports betting feels a part of the sports consciousness,” said Dustin Gouker of the Legal Sports Report, which covers regulated sports betting. “The Super Bowl,” which attracts roughly 100 million viewers annually, “is a huge acquisition point because you get the casual fan, who is harder to capture.” DraftKings said it received over a million entries into its Super Bowl contest last year. While DraftKings and FanDuel have been around since the federal ban on sports betting was struck down in 2018, Caesars’ sportsbook launched in August and is considered “the new kid on the block,” Gouker said. But it’s already broken into the top tier of betting brands alongside DraftKings and FanDuel, Gouker said. Caesars ranked first in spending $73.1 million on NFL ads this season—about $30 million more than either DraftKings or FanDuel, according to iSpot. The Nevada brand also is the early sports betting leader in New York, which in January became the biggest state to allow mobile wagering, with over $615 million in bets wagered on its book through Jan. 30, according to the state. (FanDuel is at $501 million while DraftKings is at $367 million). In the second quarter of the Big Game, Caesars will air a 30-second national spot starring its spokesman JB Smoove as Julius Caesar, actress Halle Berry as Caesar’s lover, Cleopatra; as well as Eli, Peyton, Archie and Cooper Manning playing themselves. The cast has appeared in previous ads for the brand, which worked with agency Ten6 on the Super Bowl spot. Read more: 4 Super Bowl commercials tricks that continue to work “We have entertainment in our name, and we’re going to approach the Super Bowl like any major brand would,” Caesars' Chief Marketing Officer Sharon Otterman told Ad Age. “We play a somewhat different game (than the other books). Our goal for Super Bowl isn’t that pregame acquisition," though pregame social media activations will be geared toward acquiring market share. Gouker said he isn’t surprised by Caesars’ approach. “It’s hard to get someone in the middle of the game and say, ‘Oh, yeah I’m going to download sports betting,’” Gouker said. “And that’s why Caesars is more of a branding play. (They’re) trying to penetrate the national consciousness." The brand will also advertise in select local markets a responsible gambling spot with Eli, Peyton and Archie Manning. “You can have fun, just be in control,” Otterman said of gambling and the importance of promoting responsibility on the NFL's biggest day. FanDuel is the only one of the three NFL sportsbook partners that won’t be airing an in-game national spot, instead focusing on its pregame push and a local in-game ad in select markets. Read more: 12 keys to making a Super Bowl ad worth $6.5 million “The biggest moment of the year for us is right before kickoff, so I suppose, not unlike how candy companies would spend a lot of money during the month of October, it’s probably less effective for them to be spending the dollars while the people are out trick or treating on television,” Andrew Sneyd, FanDuel’s senior VP of brand marketing, told Ad Age. But Carter, who founded the Sports Business Group in 1999, said the brand could be missing out by choosing not to air an in-game national spot. “There is no better opportunity to reach casual brands and acquaint them with your brand than the Super Bowl,” Carter said, adding that betting brands could use the Super Bowl as a launching pad to attract potential bettors for other sports events in February, including the Olympics, NBA All-Star Game and Daytona 500. “You could argue why advertise during the Super Bowl if you’re a gambling company, because that’s precisely when they should be gambling,” Carter said. “Well, then, why is Avocados From Mexico advertising from the Super Bowl (when) we already have our guacamole?” The brand worked with Wieden+Kennedy for a pregame ad based around Lady Luck, played by actress Jennifer Coolidge, who is seen leaving Los Angeles, the site of the Super Bowl, because she is no longer needed due to FanDuel’s “generous promotions,” Sneyd said. The brand will air a separate ad in-game “for the markets that matter,” Sneyd said, referring to the 14 states in which it operates. The cost of regional Super Bowl ads vary by location. It would take buying ads in the top 20 markets to eclipse the cost of a national spot. FanDuel has that “national recognition and they probably made the calculation they don’t need the game on the main broadcast,” Gouker said. As gambling becomes more mainstream, so does addiction The National Council on Problem Gambling is bracing for an uptick in calls this weekend as old and new sports bettors flock to the platforms. Calls to the council in 2021 jumped 45%, while text and chat services increased by 85% and 117% respectively, according to Keith Whyte, the organization’s director. While Whyte credited the sportsbooks for increasing awareness of the council, he said it has “a lot of concerns that gambling ads right now are a little bit too risky. The language around free bets and bonus offers is negatively impacting people who are trying to recover from gambling addiction. So we’re working with all of the stakeholders to try and develop guidelines.” Many of the sports betting companies offer “risk-free bets,” which means that bettors will receive site credit if they lose. “But then you can bet that and lose,” Gouker said. Some bettors then become stuck in a never-ending cycle of trying to win their money back. The NFL partnered with the council for an ad during the pregame and postgame focused on gambling responsibly. Whyte said the council will air its own ad around the Super Bowl aimed at gamblers who need help. DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars are all part of the council, and there is “incentive for the industry to help us develop better messages because they risk enormous public and even political backlash,” Whyte said. “We are already hearing from members of Congress who are hearing from constituents in their districts who think they’re being saturated with advertisements and think it’s inappropriate.” Whyte emphasized that the council is neither for nor against gambling. Subscribe to Ad Age now for the latest industry news and analysis. ~ ~ ~CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported the number of states in which Caesars and DraftKings sportsbooks operates. The story has been updated to reflect the correct information.

How DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars are battling for Super Bowl supremacy

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