As the U.S. online sports betting market matures, the “act fast and figure it out later” strategy has started to dissipate. Another output of maturity means that growing wallet share becomes increasingly difficult.
Any new entrants need to fasten their seatbelts and grab a crash helmet. It’s an extremely competitive market and an effective duopoly, with FanDuel and DraftKings taking up nearly three-quarters of revenue in some states.
The budget required for any new operator to make a serious impact will be larger than pretty much anywhere else in the world. Thinking you can simply outspend others to over-index share of voice, and therefore growth, is not the answer.
We are now some way down the line, with 38 states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico now offering regulated sports betting, and seven states with regulated iGaming. But so far, no sportsbook operator has really cracked creative content marketing that compounds over time.
The ultimate challenge is building a brand that resonates, without spending billions of dollars to do so.
How to do things differently
Despite some obvious challenges, the U.S. should not be viewed as a lost cause for new entrants.
Success in this sector will stem from combining the sum of the product, and the brand. Gaps on either side quickly become apparent in the retention and resulting ARPU numbers.
Newcomers should not go toe-to-toe with the market leaders, which are currently in different stratospheres for awareness, budgets and active users. Replicating their approach to marketing won’t work for brands who are in a different situation, which, on the flipside, presents an opportunity to be creative.
The first operator to become at one with the audience, in the same way that Paddy Power has in the U.K. and Ireland, can grow a sustainable business. That requires a sprinkling of genius in spotting what consumers are going to think, often before they know themselves.
Nobody has achieved that in the U.S., yet. And doing that with rock-solid discipline over time while competitors keep changing what they mean to people is a winning move.
Betr and the now shuttered Barstool Sportsbook both adopted content-led strategies but have found it more challenging than they might have anticipated, because the execution is never as simple as it sounds.
Disruptive brands are not reckless. Neither is edginess just about shocking people. The nuance that exists, particularly in regulated markets, is where the magic happens, and the right agency partners can help to find that sweet spot.
Real value can be created when a cutting-edge product is promoted with the perfect blend of brand-led and direct response marketing, being at least 9 out of 10 in those three areas is a benchmark for growth.
Owning a distinctive, responsible position matters
One place in which the U.S. currently differs greatly from Europe is the public sentiment regarding betting. The appetite in Europe, and in the U.K. in particular, is one of reform and regulation, and marketing has been caught in those crosshairs. For example, front-of-shirt gambling sponsorships will be banned at the end of the 2025/26 Premier League season.
I’m sure everyone looks back on some of their behavior when they were younger and shudders, but only through the benefit of age and experience. What may seem like fair game in sports betting and iGaming marketing right now could cause some embarrassment in the future. Especially when the wider media begins to deepen its views on what is or isn’t cool.
Operators in the U.S. must anticipate the end game, and work backwards from there. Things will change, and quickly.
The power of positioning
To conclude, the positioning of brands is critical. This should serve as a platform to promote proof points that compound back to the overarching brand proposition. Again, this is easy to say but hard to do, especially without the right experience. Crucially, there are agency partners that understand what it takes to succeed in this sector.
The smartest operators are already super conscious of brand positioning. Building a single proposition to win the primary wallet of both sports and casino players is what every CEO and CMO should be asking an agency to work on right now. That is real value creation.
