Sports betting brands were all over NFL TV coverage over the first month of the 2021 season, but that changed in Week 5.
According to iSpot.tv data, DraftKings, and FanDuel slowed their ad buys significantly in Week 5. Going from 30 units in Week 4 to just 14 this past Sunday. FanDuel really slowed up, running just ten units last week after averaging nearly 41 per week over the first month of the season.
FanDuel has spent roughly $28 million on ads this season and represents 45% of the spending from sports betting companies. DraftKings has spent $15.33 million total but went from spending $7.29 million in Week 1 to just $460,000 last Sunday.
The NFL ad category is starting to crowd as we get deeper into the season. It makes sense that newer brands like FanDuel and DraftKings wanted to get their betting information to fans en masse over the first month before scaling back after reaching plenty of the football-watching audience.
On top of the scale back, other industries are pushing to get their products in front of viewers during a major bounceback season so far for NFL ratings. Hollywood, in particular, is flexing its spending muscle as more and more theaters open up and the moviegoing public gets comfortable returning.
According to iSpot, movie studios gobbled up 143 units since the season began — shelling out $44.3 million for the space. Around this time in 2020, those same studios were still sitting on a massive trove of unreleased movies and a dead theater scene. That led to them purchasing just 41 units for $8.75 million by this point in the 2020 season.
Betting ads aren’t going away for good though. Caesars Entertainment is expected to jump ahead of DraftKings in NFL TV ad spending by this week and all of the competing brands will continue funneling their dollars to the right games throughout 2021.