One of the most significant changes is the sports league’s stance on betting. Up until this year, the NFL has opposed legalized betting. But this year, the league announced that it signed deals with three Official Sports Betting Partners—Caesars Entertainment, DraftKings and FanDuel. 

With this change, we’ve seen programmatic advertising in this category increase 157% year-over-year, with DraftKings in the driving seat. 

The NFL reverses course and embraces betting

For years, the NFL was staunchly opposed to betting. 

“We’re trying to do whatever we can to make sure our games are not betting vehicles,” Joe Browne, an N.F.L. spokesman, told The New York Times in 2008. “We have been accused of allowing gambling because it is good for the popularity of the game. If that’s true, then we have wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars opposing gambling on our games.”

But times are changing. The new betting partnerships with Caesars Entertainment, DraftKings and FanDuel are valued together at an estimated $1 billion. 

All three partners will leverage the NFL’s media properties, content and the league’s data feed. DraftKings and FanDuel will be able to integrate NFL highlights and “Next Gen Stats” content on their platforms. And Caesar’s will remain the NFL’s “Official Casino Partner.”

“Working closely with Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel, we will provide fans new and different ways of interacting and engaging with the sport they love,” said Renie Anderson, Chief Revenue Officer and Executive Vice President of NFL Partnerships.

Where did this change of heart from the NFL come from? 

It was the natural (and lucrative) result of the dismantling of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018. When the federal ban on sports banning was repealed, states began to legalize and regulate sports betting. And revenue started growing.

It’s taken states several years to pass bills establishing the basic foundations for this new legal industry—meaning there is still a lot of room for growth and innovation. States like Wyoming are starting to allow cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Blockchain technology is expected to drive better margins for this multi-billion industry.

Sports betting is probably as old as sports themselves—but legal sports betting has changed the game.

DraftKings drives programmatic spending

As the industry prepares for a new football season, new deals with the NFL and advancing technology, we’re seeing ad spending increase.

In preparation for the Fall football season, fantasy football leagues invested $2.4mm in programmatic advertising in August. 

This was primarily driven by DraftKings, whose spend accounted for 67% of fantasy sports league advertising.

Programmatic is just a portion of these companies’ advertising spending. The NFL is also bringing in millions from TV placements. The first week of football brought in $7.4 million from these companies, 9% more than last year, according to The New York Times.

This is a lucrative yet small and fairly nascent industry. There were only 29 advertising companies in August—but because states are still in the process of putting in legal frameworks for sports betting and the NFL is in its initial rounds of agreements, we can expect to see future growth. 

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But the struggle is real. 

A study from Allison+Partners found that nearly all B2B marketers—97% of their respondents—wanted to humanize their brand, but roughly two-thirds found the process difficult. 

Building warm and approachable B2B brands requires creative thinking and the ability to capitalize on key moments in the human experience. 

Enter: The Olympics. 

This year, we saw more B2B brands advertising at the Olympics—an event usually supported by B2C brands—than we have in the past.

This leads us to the question: who were the most notable B2B spenders at Tokyo 2020?

B2B brands showed up at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

All too often, B2B brands think about their buyers as ‘personas’ that fit into narrow boxes, only having professional needs and interests. In reality, these ‘personas’ or ‘ideal customer profiles’ are real humans experiencing life in and out of the office. 

This is partially why B2B brands have been trying to take advantage of “moment marketing,” following the lead of B2C brands. Moment marketing is the process of using cultural events or trends to inspire relevant campaigns. The Olympics, just like any major sporting event, is an opportunity for this type of campaign planning.

From medical companies to insurance brokers for small businesses, the events provided a spark to capture buyer attention in a very human way. Companies like Intel, Cisco, GE and Allianz all showed up. 

Their sponsorships at the event are part of a bigger trend: many B2B companies are entering the sports landscape.

Sentry Insurance, an 115 year old insurance company, signed its first sports contract with the Professional Golf Association. 

“It’s not just the interest in golf that we are tapping into. It’s the role that golf plays in our audience’s lives that we’re tapping into as well,” says Amanda Schuneman, brand strategy director. “After all, golf is an arena where watchers and players can merge their professional and personal lives. They can discuss business on the course. And they can connect more directly with others who watch and play golf as well.”

If brands can find a creative way to link business to a specific event or out-of-office experience, they’ll likely be able to build a bigger community of customers. We saw numerous B2B brands sponsoring the Olympics doing this by drawing on themes of global connectedness, a new future or other narratives appropriate for the societal transition we’re in.

MediaRadar Insights

As B2B companies invest in the sports space, we can see which companies are more willing to innovate and perhaps try out other spaces that are traditionally considered “consumer media.”

In July, ad spending from B2B Olympic sponsors totaled $5.5mm in the B2B space. This spending comes from 14 sponsors, including: Cisco, Samsung, Google, GE, and Mitsubishi.

In the month of the Olympics, the top spending sponsors were: 

• Visa
• Toyota
• Google

Other notable Olympics sponsors that made up a significant chunk of B2B Olympic sponsorships include: Cisco, GE, Bridgestone, and Dow Chemical. 

Together, these four companies spent $2.36mm in the month of July, accounting for 43% of Olympic B2B Sponsors spending.

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The NBA finals and the Stanley Cup finals took place in July, while regular season MLB play carried on. 

With the chaotic sports seasons last year, viewership and ratings were down significantly. Despite this, networks did a good job of retaining advertisers. 

This year, leagues are focused on reaching and growing audiences while the pandemic limits in-person attendance. In some cases, they’re using innovative ways to attract new crowds. 

While they try non-traditional methods, how are the “traditional” advertising trends faring?

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Sports leagues seek to recover losses

The sports industry lost about a third of its value last year.

In order to recover their losses, the NBA, MLB and NHL are seeking new ways to grow their audiences and bring in revenue. 

The NBA

The NBA is trying to grow their audience with advertising aimed at global audiences and genZ. 

To reach global audiences, the league launched a new campaign, “That’s Game.” The ad features actor Idris Elba and will be shown in more than 200 countries. The ad calls basketball the sport of “poetry in motion,” and reflects on the sport’s history.

In an effort to reach younger audiences, the NBA partnered with Fortnite. Players can choose from 30 different NBA uniforms and join in on NBA Team Battles. There are also “player lockers” in the Item Shop, personally chosen by NBA players.

Even though viewership for the final championships were down this year, the way marketers evaluate the value of their partnerships is evolving. Engagement across different channels might matter more than T.V. ratings. This is why leagues now partner with other platforms or services—like Reddit, Snap, Twitter, Fortnite and DoorDash.

The MLB

The MLB is also growing its international audience, primarily in Japan.

Japanese star pitcher and hitter, Shohei Ohtani, has the unique potential to become the new face of the MLB. Unlike other leagues who have big personalities that pretty much represent the sport itself (e.g. LeBron James or Lionel Messi), the MLB doesn’t have a key superstar yet. 

But Ohtani, who represents the Los Angeles Angels, is loved in the U.S. and Japan, and is surpassing the performance of Babe Ruth. 

The MLB just released a new thirty-second ad, “It’s Sho-Time.” The ad highlights Ohtani’s performance, plus his “heartthrob” nature. The ad positions the “first two-way all star in history” as a “phenom” and a “global superstar.” 

Baseball has traditionally found its primary audience in the United States, but with Ohtani’s outstanding performance, that might start to change.

The NHL

The NHL brings in about $1 billion every year—but the majority (70%) of that is from ticket sales and in-person purchases. Without attendees last year, the league suffered financially.

As a way to bring in more money, the league began selling ad placements on helmets and jerseys. However, most fans didn’t like how the crowded advertisements appeared. 

The ad placements on jerseys won’t continue next season, but the helmet ad placements will remain.

MediaRadar Insights

As the leagues take new approaches to advertising, what are we seeing in traditional ad buys?

July was an active month for the three sports leagues. There were the NBA finals, the Stanley Cup finals, and regular season MLB play. These leagues and teams invested $4.9mm into digital, television and print advertising. 

Projected through the end of the month, advertising spending will total $8.5mm. Due to delays and shortened seasons, this is up 96% from last July*.

*However, Stanley cup finals and the NBA finals started in September of 2020, where spending from baseball, hockey and basketball leagues and teams totaled $16.23mm.

When we compare the championship months of 2020 and 2021 (September and July), we see that spending is down 48% (using projected July spend).

In July of 2019, spending from Hockey, Baseball and Basketball leagues and teams totaled $5.1mm. Though this would indicate that spending in July of 2021 is recovering and down just 4%, July of 2019 had no championship games, where spend tends to be higher.

Though the leagues are running new campaigns, overall spending on traditional advertising is down. As the NFL gears up, we’ll begin to see even more money pour in from this category. We’ll continue watching closely to see any changes in buying behavior. 

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The games and Super Bowl ad creatives may already be analyzed—but the advertising data on the entire 2020-21 NFL season is finally here.

We encourage you to subscribe to our blog for the latest data surrounding the advertising industry. We will provide daily updates as COVID-19 continues to make its mark on the US economy.

The 2020-21 NFL Season Carried On During COVID 

In July, the NFL decided to go through with the full season, but unlike the NBA, the WNBA, and the NHL, the league did not require players and other professionals to enter into a protective ‘bubble.’

Throughout the season, the NFL had over 700 positive COVID cases. And the only team to play the season without any cases was the Seattle Seahawks. 

Over the course of the season, the pandemic could be felt heavily in the stands. 1.2 million attendees watched their favorite teams compete—well below the typical 17 million. During the Super Bowl, the league allowed 30% full capacity (22,000 seats). 7,500 of these fans were health care workers who were gifted tickets from the NFL. 

Super Bowl TV viewing and streaming was less than average—yet it’s likely to be the most watched television program of 2021. 76 of the top 100 most viewed television programs in 2020 were NFL games. And even though the number of households watching the program on TV (38%) was low, no other program has topped that percentage since the 1994 Winter Olympics. 

Between people stuck inside alone and the unexciting game, ratings sunk for the Super Bowl. But how did the advertising numbers add up throughout the entire season?

MediaRadar Insights

In 2020, we saw 1100 brands spending $4.5B across the same seven networks as the previous year (ABC, CBS, CW, ESPN, Fox, NBC, and NFL Network). To put this in perspective, there were 1226 brands that advertised with the NFL in 2019, and they spent $4.1B across the same networks.

While there were less brands running ads in the 2020-21 NFL season, the data suggests the ad space was more expensive. 

The top brands of 2020 were: 

• T-Mobile
• Geico Insurance
• Progressive Insurance
• AT&T Mobility
• Verizon Wireless

Together, their spend accounted for 12% of the total spend in the regular and postgame season.

Super Bowl LV had 96 brands spending $530M on CBS, which is an increase in brands, but a 3% decrease in the amount of ad spend. This could be a symptom of the pandemic, but another possibility is that CBS wasn’t supposed to broadcast the Superbowl this year. It was NBC’s rotation, but the networks switched in 2019.

The top brands advertising during the Super Bowl were: 

• T-Mobile
• Rocket Mortgage
• Jeep
• DoorDash
• Verizon Wireless

The NFL, like other professional sports leagues, struggled with low ratings amid the pandemic. But as vaccinations continue being distributed and the economy recovers, sports programming will be a solid choice for advertisers to uplift their brand. 

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