Bleacher Report Gets Into Sports Gambling, To Develop Las Vegas Shows

The Supreme Court’s verdict in May 2018 that annulled a 1992 law and made sports gambling legal has bolstered many media players. Prime among them is the Bleacher Report, a unit of AT&T’s WarnerMedia division.

The Turner division of AT&T bought B/R in 2012 for a hefty $175 million. Bleacher Report with its focus on youth has made significant strides in sports gambling and is scripting many new plans.

The target audience of the Bleacher Report is millennial and Gen Z sports fans. It reaches more than 250 million sports fans via Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

According to Bleacher Report, its sports betting category is growing fast and the expansion has been three times more than any other category.

“Because we have an app that has almost 20 million downloads, 9.5 million consumers receiving alerts from us anywhere from 5 to 20 times per day, we sit on a lot of first-party data,” CEO Howard Mittman said.

Sports betting turning into an American pastime

Changes in the legal structure have made sports-betting a mainstream American pastime. According to the management, gaming-related programming will start in summer and reach approximately 250 million sports lovers on social media.

Bleacher Report’s CEO Howard Mittman said: “We are commingling the data we have about usage, experience and what consumers want with Caesars data, which is some of the most powerful and cumulative data in the world for sports betting.”

Deal with Caesars for programming

In February, Bleacher Report signed a deal with Caesars to start a sports-betting studio at its Las Vegas casino.

The new B/R-branded studio will be a hub for a “wide assortment of gaming-related programming and editorial content,” and the content will be distributed through the B/R app and website.

The Supreme Court judgment has given a leeway to states in legalizing sports gambling. Already eight states have made it legal while more are expected to follow suit. The market is expanding fast.

Partnerships are also growing among Leagues and teams. The faster traction in sports gambling is also aided by the fading stigma associated with gambling.

A study by Bleacher Report said 95 percent of sports fans in the age group of 21-34 see no stigma in gambling.

Higher focus on younger consumers

This new approach of the young crowd is expanding engagement. As a result, bettor’s engagement rates are seen five times more than non-bettors on a site.

“I think younger consumers relate to the gamification of all things — not just Fortnite, EA Sports and Madden” added Mittman.

The CEO notes that younger consumers hardly use slot machines even in Las Vegas, and “they are more apt to bet more on sports.”