Boosting Online Sports Betting Success with Cross-Screen TV Advertising

Online sports betting has seen a tremendous surge in popularity, driven primarily by technological advancements and a cultural shift towards digital convenience. A prime example of this shift is the rise of online sportsbook apps, which have revolutionized how enthusiasts engage with their favorite sports. Online sportsbooks have seamlessly integrated cutting-edge technology to offer users real-time betting, personalized experiences, and comprehensive analytics. This trend is underscored by the American Gaming Association’s latest report which showed that Americans wagered a record $119.84 billion on sports betting in 2023 – a 27.5% increase from the year prior.  

As the sports betting marketplace continues to grow, sportsbook apps must stay top of mind with customers. In the past few years, CTV has become a valuable channel for reaching prospective customers across a broad range of demographics and behavioral attributes. However, sports betting is beholden to several federal and state regulations for both their business operations and advertising. Fortunately, Cadent has developed a solution that supports the unique campaign needs of sportsbook marketers.  

The Online Sportsbook’s Challenge 

A leading online sportsbook sought to boost awareness among sports enthusiasts, particularly with the launch of online sports betting in North Carolina in March 2024, coinciding with the excitement of the March Madness championships. The sportsbook wanted to drive concentrated reach across CTV devices among sports enthusiasts living in North Carolina. Additionally, they aimed to measure ad recall and intent to recommend the platform to a friend. 

The Solution 

By partnering with Cadent, the sportsbook used linear TV and CTV to drive upper-funnel KPIs including brand awareness and perception.

The Plan 

Cadent implemented a linear TV and CTV campaign that incorporated cross-screen audience activation, data evaluation, and optimization. 

Using Aperture Platform’s data marketplace and Boolean logic, Cadent defined a custom audience as “A21+ AND live in North Carolina” AND “are sports enthusiasts OR college basketball enthusiasts OR have a professional basketball interest.” To further enhance audience targeting, Cadent mapped segments to households in the state of North Carolina and device IDs using Aperture Viewer Graph. 

The always-on campaign, activated via Aperture DSP, successfully reached target audiences by delivering ads across premium long-form CTV inventory, including Pluto TV, NFL Network, Fox Sports, NBA TV, and more. Leveraging Aperture Viewer Graph, Cadent managed frequency at the household level to boost positive recall and intent. In addition, recognizing the value of loyal sports audiences, Cadent strategically enhanced efforts during the March Madness playoffs for greater contextual relevance. 

The Results 

To measure success, Cadent placed a LoopMe pixel across all media to gather brand health results. Additionally, the client leveraged Cadent’s in-house exposed audience insights solution to analyze audience attributes for optimizations against their strategic audience.  

The brand health study was conducted via LoopMe to assess overall brand perception and inform future campaign activation. 

• Ad Recall: The campaign yielded significant lifts in ad recall and intent metrics, exceeding benchmarks. This indicated that exposed audiences remembered seeing the ad and were likely to recommend the sports betting platform to a friend. 

• Optimization: The client leveraged Cadent’s Exposed Audience Insights solution to gain a deeper understanding of the strategic audience and enhance campaign optimizations accordingly. 

• Channel Performance: Advanced reporting via Aperture Dashboard revealed attributes on demographics, psychographics, shopping, and viewership behaviors. It was found that the strategic audience had the highest composition among linear TV viewership, particularly news, syndication, NFL, and NBA games. To optimize budgets, Cadent advised shifting the investment to activate a linear TV campaign through Aperture Platform, further enhancing performance. 

Next Steps 

Ready to learn more about how Cadent can support your next CTV advertising campaign?