FanDuel prepares first live Super Bowl ad featuring Rob Gronkowski
Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss how sports betting companies like FanDuel are hoping to draw more users to their platforms through competitions and advertising.
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
[PHONE RINGING]
ROB GRONKOWSKI: Gronk speaking.
- Gronky, baby, how does a FanDuel Super Bowl commercial sound?
ROB GRONKOWSKI: Great. What do I got to do?
- FanDuel is putting up a $10 million payout when you kick a field goal during the Super Bowl.
ROB GRONKOWSKI: Wait, I don't kick, I catch.
- Kick, catch, who cares? It's football!
ROB GRONKOWSKI: What?
- And it's going to be live.
ROB GRONKOWSKI: Live?
- In front of millions of people.
ROB GRONKOWSKI: Wait, no, this--
- It's called the Kick of Destiny.
ROB GRONKOWSKI: What the heck is Kick of Destiny?
- Good luck! See you in Phoenix! [INAUDIBLE]
ROB GRONKOWSKI: Oh, boy. I better Call [? Vin ?] and Terry.
SEANA SMITH: Gronk has some practicing to do over the next couple of weeks. Online sportsbook FanDuel placing its own bets on this year's Super Bowl. The gambling company will run an ad featuring a live field goal kicked by former NFL tight end, who you just saw there, Rob Gronkowski. Fans who bet $5 or more on this year's Super Bowl will be entered into a contest. Now, if Gronk makes that 25-yard field goal, each bettor will split $10 million in free bets. Likely, won't get paid out a lot. But certainly, speaking to the larger issue here, bringing a lot more attention on to these online sportsbooks, which, coming off, has been a trying year for a lot of these companies.
DAVE BRIGGS: Yeah, kind of like trying a 25-yard field goal.
SEANA SMITH: Yeah, it's tough.
DAVE BRIGGS: Not always that high percentage. But Adam Vinatieri coaching him I will bet. But, look, it'd be great if there were only 10 people betting and you get a shot at a million bucks. But there's probably going to be a million people with a shot at, like, 10 bucks. Still, it is free money, and it is an interesting element when you talk about Super Bowl ads. Can't recall in recent years a live--
SEANA SMITH: Yeah, that's a fun component.
DAVE BRIGGS: --feel for the moment commercial. And that is a smart play for FanDuel. Although, it is interesting, the large thing you're hearing about these sports gambling companies is, all right, they're going to cut spending. They've been overspending to lure new players. And here is what they're doing, spending $7 million, an all-time high, for a 30-second ad. Do give them a lot of credit for having it live and giving fans some involvement.
And the payoff here is, they're going to get a couple of weeks here of play on that ad, generate excitement. That is the new sports marketing theory, that you get a couple of weeks' bounce out of these commercials. So this is a smart play. But to your point, it's been a really tough go. DraftKings down more than 50% in the last 12 months. You know, FanDuel is owned by Flutter. That's a different one. But PENN down 36%. Caesars is down 50%. It's time to make investors some money, and it's got to start the biggest gambling day of the year.
SEANA SMITH: It does. It makes a lot of sense, I think, for them, at least to be picking this year as the first year. Yes, they need to see some growth. We know investors have been pretty much fed up with their path to profitability when it comes to a lot of these names, which has certainly been placing pressure on the sector overall. When it comes to FanDuel, though, right now they account for about 40% of the US market share when it comes to sports betting.
So how big of a lead maybe or how much wider they could potentially grow that is the question there, when they are getting more and more competition. This year, at least, it is legal in 18 states. Ohio just coming online this month. So we'll see whether or not it pays off. But they certainly are making a big bet there.
DAVE BRIGGS: So is DraftKings. They will have a Super Bowl ad also in that $7 million for 30 seconds. Kevin Hart will be the star of that. So you will feel a real presence of sports betting companies in the biggest sports gambling day of the year.
