Tuesdata: Which sports betting brand gambled the most on marketing?

BY Tim Burrowes

September 26, 2022 11:40

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Last weekend saw the AFL Grand Final play out with a commanding win for the Geelong Cats, while the coming weekend will see the Penrith Panthers take on the Parramatta Eels on Sunday for the NRL Grand Final.

In previous years that would have meant a detailed look at which marketers had decided to spend significant brand dollars around the major sporting events, and today’s environment is no different, with one exception.

One of the major sectors you can bet on (pun intended) spending big on marketing around the finals is betting and wagering.

The cosying up of betting companies to media owners, the growth of the sector, the new brands emerging, as well as the social and political ramifications of the sector’s progress continue to be significant talking points both in the trade media as well as the media in general.

A crunch point is arriving when sports will have to take a serious look at whether it continues to accept the dollars being thrown at it by betting and wagering companies, and for that matter, alcohol and vaping companies as well.

But let’s not go too far into the murky waters of what is right and wrong with sports advertising and marketing. That’s a deep hole that will be a struggle to climb out of.

Instead, let’s focus on betting and wagering, and the spend statistics according to Nielsen Ad intelligence for August, a key lead up period to the two footy grand finals.

In all, total spend for the category last month was $20,231,000.

The list is a solid mix of established and new brands. Below are the top five according to spend.

Betting and wagering advertising spend in August

Nielsen Ad Intelligence overall spend rankings in betting and wagering for August 2022

Pointsbet Australia

Shaq’s back for Pointsbet in its latest campaign that has had significant airtime on TV. The company first used the NBA legend in early 2021. The Melbourne-based business which has expanded into other markets including the US has just recorded its second year of losses in a row having spent $240m in sales and marketing, $162m of that going towards US growth.

It’s the major partner of the Manly SeaEagles NRL club as well as one of the premier partners of the Cronulla Sharks.

Sportsbet

Owned by Irish betting business Flutter Entertainment, Sportsbet primarily targets the Australian market. It’s well known for its tongue-in-cheek TV campaigns done through its in-house creative team. Previous examples include the NRL Wellness Retreat, Cleopatra explaining the Sportsbet app to her people, and the ‘Elite Average Games’.

The brand recently picked up In-house Agency of the Year at the newly formed In-house Agency Council awards. It was also recently reported that Sportsbet has tried to extend its current deal with the AFL through to 2030. The deal currently expires in 2025.

Ladbrokes

Early in 2021 Entain Group brand Ladbrokes made waves when Thinkerbell created the character Mike Iceberg for it, played by Hollywood star Mark Wahlberg. The campaign leveraged the term ‘Ladbroke it’, but one of the spots was found in breach of the Australian Association of National Advertisers Code of Ethics.

Earlier this year The Monkeys first work for Ladbrokes was released after it won the creative account in October last year. The campaign pushed the idea of betting with mates while its latest campaign in market saw The Monkeys promote Punter Assist, a mode in the Ladbroke app designed to help consumers gamble responsibly.

TAB

Arguably the traditional Australian betting and wagering brand and leading player in times past when Australians went to the local TAB to place a bet. The TAB now finds itself up against stiff competition from both local and international players, most of which are digital natives.

The new TAB app launched this month and the brand will be putting a lot of faith in it to claw back the deficit, one it admits is big.

“At the moment, we’re slow to get product out, slow with updates, slow with regulation. The new app is innovative and nimble; it’ll change the face of the brand and the way we interact with our customers,” Tabcorp chief executive Adam Rytenskild told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Its latest TV campaign is a safe play rather than a Ladbrokes-style epic.

Neds

The second Entain Group brand in this list also has its creative led by The Monkeys. The latest campaign leverages the ‘Takes it to the Neds level’ catchphrase and applies it to gambling responsibly.

But it was the initial TV spot that set the foundation for the ‘Neds level’ work – the first campaign the brand had done in two years and the first for The Monkeys for Entain Group as this was released before its Ladbrokes work.

It involves typical The Monkeys flair in a storyline that is so crazy it just might work.

The brand is an official partner of the A-Leagues as well as the Brisbane Lions.

It’s not the drop but the sudden stop…

Thankfully, no one on the Unmade Index looks like they are heading towards a sudden stop. But the predicated falls after a tumultuous end to the week on the US market has come true. Perhaps not to the extent that was thought, though.

There were some positives. HT&E and Domain recording the slightest of gains. But the rest saw decent falls, Ooh Media and Enero Group in particular recording more than 3.5% drops.