2025 State of Mobile is Live!
Sensor Tower · Seema Shah · August 2023
Sports Betting Apps Bet Big on Digital Advertising
FanDuel dominated digital ad marketing in 2019, accounting for 65% of the cohort's US spending and achieving over 60% share of total impressions. Despite DraftKings increasing its ad spend by over 500% in 2020, FanDuel's level of impressions remained unaffected. The majority of paid spend within the cohort occurred in the second half of the year, likely due to key sports seasons. In 2022, a more balanced approach to digital advertising emerged, with spend evenly split between the first and second half of the year. In 4Q22, FanDuel outspent DraftKings by over 100% and saw an increase in paid downloads, but organic downloads remained nearly even, suggesting heavy advertising may not reduce organic interest and engagement. FanDuel invested 50% of all ad spend in 4Q22 and experienced a significant increase in monthly active users and downloads.
Key Takeaways:
FanDuel invested early in digital ad marketing and accounted for nearly 65% of the cohort’s US spending in 2019, which led to over 60% share of total impressions against competitors in the same time period, per ST data
Despite DraftKings increasing its US ad spend spend over 500% YoY in 2020, there was little impact to FanDuel’s level of impressions, with both sportsbooks apps earning 33% of the cohort’s 2020 spend
From 2019 to 2021, 75% of all paid spend within the cohort took place in the second half of the year, likely driven by the beginning of key sports seasons such as the NFL and NBA
A more balanced always-on approach in digital advertising for sportsbooks began to take form in 2022, with digital paid advertising spend evenly split between 1H and 2H of the year, per ST data
In 4Q22, FanDuel outspent DraftKings by over 100%, increasing its percentage of paid downloads by 5%. However, the percentage of organic downloads was nearly even with DraftKings highlighting that periods of heavy advertising may not lessen organic interest and engagement with the brand, particularly when interest is driven by an outside event, such as the start of NFL season
FanDuel invested 50% of all ad spend across the cohort in 4Q22, and saw MAUs and downloads increase 40% and 95% QoQ, respectively
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