Online sports gambling a study in promotion, audience engagement
Online sports gambling is increasingly popular in the U.S., with estimates that the industry will generate from $7 billion to $8 billion by 2025. With sportsbook companies, gamblers can bet not just on the outcomes of any variety of sports but on any variety of items in one or multiple sporting events — first touchdown, last at-bat, which player gets a triple-double. The combinations are seemingly endless.
It’s no surprise that a pursuit with this much variety and risk, coupled with the zeal of sports fans and gamblers, has generated an engaged Twitter community around the country’s two top sportsbooks, DraftKings and FanDuel.
Comparing the two betting giants’ Twitter feeds using Paraqeet at various points in July shows constant chatter on both sites centered on what you might expect from their followers: comparing gambling wins and losses, complaining about the sportsbooks’ odds and boosts, trash talking a player or team whose performance ruined a bet and being awed at some of the winning combination bets.
The most dominant influencers in these conversations, however, are the sportsbook companies themselves. They’re busy every day engaging their followers by promoting their offerings and specials, retweeting posts by gambling commentators and related sports odds sites, and airing their own commentators’ takes on upcoming events. They’re not sniping at each other, but they keep a steady churn of conversation with their audiences to keep them engaged and, presumably, placing bets.
The continual engagement and promotion aren’t so surprising, though, considering that neither company has turned a profit on its sports betting since it became legal through a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision. While their existing daily fantasy sports businesses gave the companies a ready customer base for betting, the companies are raining money to entice new customers.
Generally, sportsbooks are paying hundreds of dollars in customer acquisition costs in hopes that they gain the lifetime value of more than $1,000 per paying customer. For instance, new DraftKings users get up to a $1,000 bonus in site credits with their first deposit, while FanDuel refunds new users up to $1,000 in site credit if they lose their first bet.
With at least a dozen sportsbooks in operation, the Twitter self-promotion and giveaways are bound to continue until the field is narrowed. Experts predict there likely will be only five or six betting operators at most that gather more than 10% market share.
Let the games begin.