In recent years, the U.S. sports betting industry has undergone unprecedented changes, with rapid expansion of the legal market and the flourishing development of sports betting apps, propelling the industry into a period of rapid growth. To date, the cumulative revenue of the betting industry has exceeded $30 billion, and the growth trend shows no signs of slowing down.
As more states join the legalization of sports betting, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Major operators are stepping up their marketing investments, spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually on advertising campaigns across television, digital media, and radio channels to capture more market share.
However, behind this battle, the sports betting industry also faces a series of marketing challenges—high customer acquisition costs, an advertising market approaching saturation, and how to ensure profitability while developing an omni-channel marketing strategy. Additionally, marketers must cope with increasingly strict advertising regulations and develop refined strategies for different state markets, making promotional efforts more complex.
In such a competitive and challenging environment, the key to success lies in effectively addressing these challenges. This guide will combine data analysis to provide practical marketing strategies to help you:
✅ Improve user acquisition efficiency and maximize advertising effectiveness
✅ Build an omni-channel marketing strategy to achieve promotional synergy
✅ Maintain user engagement during off-seasons and event gaps to enhance long-term retention rates
Whether you are an industry veteran or a newcomer to the sports betting market, you will gain valuable insights from this article and take the lead in fierce competition. Next, we will delve into industry trends and analyze how to turn market challenges into growth opportunities.
Annual Growth Trends in the Sports Betting Industry
Adjust data shows that user interaction with U.S. sports betting apps peaked around the Super Bowl in 2023. App installations began to accelerate from mid-January, with the weeks of January 16 and January 23 being 24% higher than the average weekly value for the year. Meanwhile, the peak in session volume occurred from January 23 to January 30, 8% higher than the weekly average.
It is noteworthy that the peak session duration for betting apps was not directly related to specific sports events but occurred during Christmas week. In the week of December 25, 2023, session duration for U.S. sports betting apps reached a historical high, 5% above the annual average.
In 2024, the installation volume of these apps continued to grow significantly, especially in January:
📌 The installation volume in the first week of January was 35% higher than the average weekly value for the year
📌 The week of January 8 still exceeded the average by 30%
📌 The week of January 15 climbed again to 35%
In terms of session volume, the trend in 2024 was consistent with 2023, with interaction volumes in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl being 6%-8% higher than the average. These data indicate that the advancement of sports betting legalization has had a positive impact on user acquisition (UA). In 2023, states such as Ohio, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Maine, and Florida opened their sports betting markets; in 2024, Vermont and North Carolina also joined the lineup.
However, merely attracting new users is not enough; the core challenge for betting apps is how to improve user retention and ensure they remain active within the app. Next, we will explore how to optimize UA strategies, avoid erosion by organic volumes, and enhance the long-term value (LTV) of users.
In-depth Analysis of Channel Performance, Optimize Ad Placement
Precise data analysis is key to ensuring marketing effectiveness. Many sports betting operators still rely on intuition or rough attribution analysis to assess promotional effectiveness, which often leads to wastage of marketing budgets. Biased attribution is a common problem, referring to when advertising platforms or channels also act as monitoring providers, they may tend to attribute traffic and conversions to their own platforms, ignoring other channels that truly drive growth. This misleading data can distort marketing decisions, preventing budgets from being maximally effective.
For example, even if some users are already inclined to install your app, their download behavior might be incorrectly attributed to a certain advertising campaign due to biased attribution mechanisms. Additionally, an excessive focus on the "last click" in the user journey can also lead to misjudgments, causing marketers to overlook other key early touchpoints (such as brand awareness or community interaction), thereby affecting the overall strategy layout.
To address this issue, betting apps should collaborate with independent mobile monitoring partners (MMPs), such as Adjust. MMPs can provide clear, unbiased data analysis, helping marketers accurately assess the real performance of various channels. Here are a few key steps to optimize attribution and channel analysis:
1️⃣Analyze attribution data, identify high-value channels
📌 Understand which channels bring the most high-intent users
📌 Track how many ad interactions users experience before conversion
📌 Identify points where users drop off and develop optimization strategies
2️⃣Evaluate channel synergy, enhance marketing ROI
📌 Study the complete path from brand awareness to installation, to betting or in-app purchases (IAP)
📌 Ensure coordination between different channels to increase conversion rates
3️⃣Flexibly adjust promotional strategies to match different sports events
📌 For example, before the NFL season starts, YouTube TV reaches a large number of football fans through NFL Sunday Ticket, making it an important marketing channel
📌 Connected TV (CTV) ads combine the appeal of traditional TV with the precision of digital marketing for efficient delivery
CTV Marketing: Creating High-Converting Full-Screen Experiences
Connected TV (CTV) advertising is becoming increasingly important in the sports betting industry, especially in terms of brand awareness and performance marketing. Unlike traditional TV ads, CTV allows for precise targeting, ensuring that ads are delivered to the most relevant audience. For example, YouTube leverages Google AI technology to dynamically optimize ad insertion duration and frequency based on user behavior, reducing disruptions and enhancing conversion rates.
Additionally, modern CTV ads support "cross-device interaction," meaning users can see an ad on TV and have related information sent to their phones, allowing them to further explore the app at any time. This seamless experience ensures that users do not miss the opportunity to learn about your product due to interruptions in watching sports events, greatly enhancing conversion efficiency.
Conclusion
The growth momentum of the sports betting industry continues, and the competitive landscape is becoming more intense. To stand out in this market, operators not only need precise data analysis but also need to flexibly adjust marketing strategies to maximize user acquisition efficiency and enhance user retention during key sports events.
📌Precise attribution, optimize promotional budgets, avoid data biases
📌Omni-channel layout, combining CTV, social media, search ads, and other touchpoints to create a complete marketing loop
📌Data-driven decisions, monitor real performance through MMPs, achieving sustainable growth
No matter how the market changes, only precise strategies and continuous optimization can secure a winning position in this fiercely competitive betting battlefield.
