As more states continue to open for legalized sports betting — and more sportsbook operators emerge — leading operators are signing major marketing deals with media influencers to drive new customer acquisition. More importantly, though, operators see influencers as a way to build long-term loyalty.

“All of these companies are trying to get the same users, primarily 21-30 year-old males,” said Ian Borthwick, senior director of influencer channels at SeatGeek. “It’s really tough to compete when they’re blind to Instagram ads or Google ads, they’re blind to those because they’ve saturated their lives.

THE TAKEAWAY
DraftKings has reported earlier this year that a customer’s lifetime value is $2,500, and that its average customer acquisition cost is $371. Operators hope that influencer partners can keep users engaged, active and loyal over the long term.

READ: Sportsbook Operators Turn to Media Influencers in Customer Loyalty Race

As FanDuel and DraftKings largely shift their focus from daily fantasy games to sports betting, a second tier of operators is emerging.

Companies like Monkey Knife Fight, She Plays, PlayLine and StatHero are seizing the opportunity, looking to nab market share from those industry behemoths and even draw in new users with potentially less-intimidating game formats.

For FanDuel and DraftKings, there’s little room to grow having already acquired most of the DFS players. 

But now those players might be ready to jump to a different operator still focusing, and spending, on DFS. Still, none of the operators expect to gain 100% of the market share the two behemoths already hold — for now.

“There is an opportunity to acquire customers within the DFS world they built because there are affiliates, content partners and advertising channels that are accustomed to their heavy spends that aren’t there now,” Monkey Knife Fight president Sulsky said. “Just because they helped invent it, it’s not done. The industry will continue to innovate. Google didn’t invent internet search.”

THE TAKEAWAY
As can happen in any industry, opportunity arises when the industry’s biggest brands begin to diversify their businesses and invest in more lucrative opportunities. In the DFS world, a new tier of operators is aiming to attack that opportunity through new formats, creative marketing approaches, and offering action around overlooked sports and leagues.

READ: New Tier of Daily Fantasy Sports Operators Ready To Challenge

As Australia-based operator PointsBet continues its journey to capture 10% or more of the U.S. sports betting market, it has secured a five-year deal with NBCUniversal, becoming the official sports betting partner of NBC Sports.

PointsBet CEO Johnny Aitken said it was important for PointsBet to be “married” to any partner, and structured in a way to make both parties mutually encouraged to extract maximum value out of the partnership. Other media companies have gone similar routes, like Fox’s investment into Canada-based Stars Group, which runs Fox Bet. 

The format has been flipped too, with a betting company like Penn National buying a stake in Barstool Sports. Other media partnerships have been more traditional marketing deals, like CBS with William Hill. ESPN’s deal with Caesars Entertainment recently expanded to include a studio space on the Las Vegas Strip.

THE TAKEAWAY
This deal — in which NBC received a 4.9% equity stake in exchange for $393 million of marketing value — is the latest in showing how the stakes continue be raised for partnerships between traditional media outlets and emergent sportsbook operators.

READ: PointsBet, NBCUniversal Enter 5-Year Sports Betting Partnership

In-play betting is seen as a massive opportunity across the U.S. sports landscape, and Simplebet’s has raised $35 million to take on that opportunity, with big-name investors including San Francisco Giants; David Blitzer, co-managing partner of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, Andre Agassi, and Jeff Mallett, founding chief operating officer and president of Yahoo, and co-owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps, among others.

For operators, it can turn casual fans into bettors and boost revenue generation from existing customers. Sports betting as a whole can boost engagement in a game 80%, but bettors are more likely to watch news about it as well.

“Those bets and opportunities and markets unlock what I’d describe as a sports bettor that’s not a sports bettor today,” said SimpleBet co-founder and CEO Chris Bevilacqua.

THE TAKEAWAY
While much of the attention in the U.S. market is paid to the convergence of sportsbooks and media brands, Simplebet — and the company’s notable investors — are betting on the growth of in-play betting; in Europe, more than 70% of all bets come from in-play opportunities, while only 20% of Nevada’s bets currently come from in-play opportunities.

READ: Simplebet Investor List Showcases Bullish Push Around In-Play Betting