Caesars Entertainment will cut back on advertising spending for its sports betting division, CEO Tom Reeg said Tuesday on a fourth-quarter earnings call. For consumers, that means there could be fewer of those all too familiar commercials involving JB Smoove, Halle Berry and more recently the Manning family.
“You are going to see us dramatically curtail our traditional media spend, effective immediately,” Reeg said. “We have accomplished what we set out to do. We set out to become a significant player, and it’s happened significantly quicker than we thought.”
According to Reeg, Caesars Sportsbook held 21% of the United States sports betting market through last month after previously being “an afterthought in the market.”
With the Super Bowl and the launch of online sports betting in key states like New York in the rearview, other sportsbooks may be in alignment in cutting back on ad spend in an increasingly competitive and hectic market.
Wynn Resorts – owner of WynnBett – executed a “meaningful curtail in marketing spend” on its interactive arm in November and December, CEO Craig Billings said last week. And a recent report on DraftKings by Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli said that company’s spending on sales and marketing is expected to plateau as well.
That is until the launche of online sports betting in Ohio and Maryland this year – or if other big states open their markets. Then things could change. But overall, sportsbooks appear to be reigning things in, which could also mean fewer promotional offerings for new bettors.
“I think maybe we’ve got one more NFL cycle of exuberance ahead of us,” BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt said on January 19. “But capital is rational, money is rational.”