The results are in and, thanks to the legalized sports betting craze, sports-themed casino promotions have proven their weight in gold
One year has passed since the Supreme Court legalized sports betting, and it’s been a whirlwind in our industry with no signs of slowing down. Just recently, we saw Indiana become the next state to legalize sports betting and Fox Corporation invested $236 million with Stars Group, Inc. to get a piece of the sports betting pie.
It was also one year ago in Raving’s Solutions Magazine that I posed the question “What should a Tribal casino do right now to take advantage of the ruling and position themself as a leader before it becomes ‘official’ in their location?” and answered it this way:
“You should take advantage of the SCOTUS ruling by immediately engaging your customer base – and seeking out the tens of millions of untapped sports gambling customers – by strategically implementing sports-related promotions. This applies to all those who either plan to enter the legal sports betting market or not.”
I’m proud to report that our recommendation is now something you can take to the bank.
My point is, you may have stayed on the sidelines regarding sports-themed promotions over the last year. But don’t put it off any longer. Choose the right partner and make it happen.
NFL and March Mania
For today, let’s focus on two national obsessions – the NFL and March Mania.
This year, March Madness was an overwhelming winner for many casinos. But that’s now yesterday’s news. More importantly what’s next? Don’t blink or you’ll miss the opportunity to capitalize on the upcoming NFL season and there are numerous ways you can make it work for you.
Let’s look at one case history – the $1 Million Pro Football Frenzy and $100,000 Pro Football Playoff Challenge. This is one of the “new age” digital to on-floor campaigns where participants played a variety of online sports-themed games, enjoyed a fantasy sports component, and made weekly picks. It was configured to convert online engagement into property visits with a variety of segmented rewards, required on-property activations and
other fun and rewarding – plus profitable – program elements. In addition to the usual motivators, this promotion included cash prizes of $1M for surpassing a predetermined number of winning picks during the regular season and $100,000 for hitting 25/25 on a Big Game prop card.
Here are the unfiltered revenue numbers that one of our Northeastern Tribal clients provided us at the conclusion of the program:
As our client said to us, “Near 20% increase in every metric when compared to the prior year same period … crazy!”
What the stats have to say …
But there’s more. Check out these online engagement numbers over the course of the program!
Unique Users: 18,362
Total Logins: 820,330
Avg. Logins Per User: 44.68
Total Online Activities: 1,982,223
Avg. Activities Per User: 107.95
Total Pick ‘Em Cards Submitted: 32,721
Please allow me to say it again for the cheap seats … whether it involves the Triple Crown, Stanley Cup, MLB, NBA, NASCAR, NFL or college athletics, there are plenty of sports-related promotions offered out there by lots of great companies that are fun, exciting, easy to implement and proven to produce results that will help establish you as a “go-to” property. In all cases the key element is to ask, “Does it drive people and revenue on my floor?”
Again, you may have stayed on the sidelines regarding sports-themed promotions over the last year. But don’t put it off any longer. Now’s the perfect time to start looking at a professional or college football-themed promotion for your Tribal property that can generate the kind of results we shared today.
The sports betting tsunami hasn’t crested yet!
For more information on integrating sports-themed promotions, contact Amy Hergenrother or give her a call 775-329-7864.
