April 5th, 2022, YouGov
As sports betting laws continue to change across the United States, unlocking new consumer markets, betting brands have spent enormous amounts of money on marketing. Perhaps there’s no better example of this ambition than DraftKings, which spent nearly $1 billion to attract new customers in 2021.
Consumer and brand data from YouGov shows what results the brand’s marketing push has yielded lately, and how attitudes around advertising among potential customers differ from those of the general public.
While the brand has seen a modest increase in Ad Awareness this past quarter, the numbers are healthy, with the latest figures showing a little more than a third of adults in the 16 states in which sports betting is now legal remember seeing an ad for the firm in the past two weeks (35%).
YouGov consumer data shows about half of DraftKings users in the US have bet on the NFL in the past 12 months (51%). The brand likely hopes to pump up that figure after its $6.5 million 30-second Super Bowl ad. Data gathered by YouGov immediately after the game showed the brand saw an 18% week-over-week increase in Ad Awareness score after the game.
Our data shows 42% of DraftKings users have placed a bet on the NBA, and 36% have placed a bet on the MLB.
Sports watchers may not be able to go more than a few minutes without seeing some piece of DraftKings marketing – a TV commercial, naming rights, or play-area ad. While generally speaking brands could run the risk of oversaturating, YouGov data shows online gamblers – and adults considering using DraftKings – are much more likely to hold positive views about advertising.
For instance, online gamblers are nearly twice as likely as US adults to say they pay attention to ads at events (61% vs. 33%), while those considering using DraftKings are also significantly more likely to say so than the general public (54%).
DraftKings is expected to continue its aggressive marketing spending over the next year as more US regions change laws and competition heats up.
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Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. DraftKings’s Ad Awareness and Consideration scores are based on an average daily sample size of 898 US sports fans and 1,618 US adults. Figures are based on a four-week moving average. Learn more about BrandIndex.