Everyone in America knows that the Super Bowl is a spectacle that goes well beyond the game.
In less than two weeks, all of America will bear witness to a legacy-defining match-up of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs versus Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers.
There are also compelling off-the-field storylines, like the much-talked about presence of popstar Taylor Swift to support her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce.
Of course, there’s the highly-anticipated Super Bowl halftime show, which has delivered in the court of public opinion over the last two years with Rihanna in 2023 and a mix of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, and Eminem in 2022. This year’s going to feature Usher, who given his recent Las Vegas residency, should come prepared with multiple decades of hit songs.
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And of course, another thing that brings together all viewers — NFL diehards and casual fans alike — during the Super Bowl are the commercials. The ads before and during the game have become a topic of conversation for decades, which has driven the price of a Super Bowl 30-second ad spot to a whopping $7 million this year.
Considering that this Super Bowl could be the most-watched of all-time in terms of viewer volume — meaning it would amass over 115 million viewers — that number could make sense.
Super Bowl ads tend to be a decent barometer of signs of the times. Who could forget the much-maligned crypto advertisements in 2022? A year later, and those were fully absent from “The Big Game.”
Super Bowl ads featuring sports betting
For this year, one of the big trendy topics that had a great opportunity to advertise during the Super Bowl was sports betting. Since sports betting became more prevalent around the country due to a federal law change in 2018, nearly 40 states are now able to bet on sports in some capacity.
Sportsbooks have filled the airwaves with advertisements — and even ESPN, “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” owned by family-friendly parent company Disney (DIS) – Get Free Report, have already fully committed to sports gambling with ESPN Bet.
These companies are also seeing great growth, with DraftKings stock up nearly 170% over the last year. Meanwhile Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of FanDuel, went public at the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 29, signaling a greater push from the Ireland-based company in the U.S. market.
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Yet despite the massive opportunity to advertise during the biggest sporting event in the country, sports betting ads are actually going to be relatively limited during Super Bowl LVIII, according to a report by the Associated Press.
There will only be three sports betting ads before and during the Super Bowl, the NFL’s general manager for sports betting David Highhill said on Jan. 30.
NFL limits on sports betting ads
The league actually has limits on how many sports betting ads are allowed during live game broadcasts — which HighHill said more or less is “roughly” one ad per quarter — but the Super Bowl will not even hit those limits.
There could be several reasons for the missing ads. One could be that sportsbooks like DraftKings have shifted their investments away from marketing spend which has driven positive results to its bottom line.
The game is also currently being dominated by FanDuel and DraftKings — who own nearly 80% of the sports betting market share in the U.S. Depending on who advertises at the Super Bowl, the move could indicate the direction that many of the players are going when it comes to competing with the top two.
The Super Bowl does mark the end of the NFL season, which means sports books will need to find a way to get customers to keep opening up the app to bet on the rest of the leagues around the country like the NBA, MLB, NHL, or college sports.
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