We have been seeing many new partnerships formed on different levels around US sports betting over the summer, so it came as no surprise to see the longtime ESPN host and announcer Trey Wingo land a new job in a brand ambassador role for a sports betting operator.
Richard Deitsch of the Athletic tweeted about the new partnership and reported: “Some sports media news: Trey Wingo, who spent 23 years at ESPN in a variety of on-air roles, has become the Chief Trends Officer and Brand Ambassador for Caesars Sportsbook. Another former ESPN-er finding gold on the other side.”
Trey Wingo has had a long and fruitful career in the media, working with ESPN since 1997 as an NFL Live and NFL Draft announcer. Now, Wingo will be joining Caesars Sportsbook—one of the leading sports betting operators—as a brand ambassador and Chief Trends Officer, even though it is not yet completely clear what Wingo will be doing in this new role.
New Partnerships for a New Sportsbook
The Wingo partnership comes only days after Caesars Entertainment announced the launch of their Caesars Sportsbook, a brand new sports betting app with a national marketing campaign.
Caesars Entertainment is the country’s biggest gambling operator, and the plan with the new sports betting product is to provide bettors around the country with a top-notch product that would integrate all of the company’s assets into a single, comprehensive betting app.
“We are excited to launch our new comprehensive marketing campaign for Caesars Sportsbook. The rebranded and upgraded offerings for our Caesars Sportsbook will provide customized offers, flexible limits, a wide range of betting lines, and an intuitive user experience. Caesars Sportsbook also brings players into an empire of play where, win or lose, every wager gives them more through our award-winning Caesars Rewards,” said Tom Reeg, CEO of Caesars Entertainment.
The introduction of the popular Caesars Rewards program to the betting app is one of the most notable new features, as participation in the program will allow players to earn points that can be spent in dozens of live Caesars location across the US.
It is important to note that the new betting product is launched via two different apps, as residents of Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia will have access to Caesars Sportsbook through a Liberty powered app, while those in Nevada, Illinois, and Washington DC will be using a William Hill powered app due to local regulations.
A Billion Dollar Investment
The new Caesars Sportsbook will come as a result of a billion dollar investment which will be made by Caesars Entertainment over the next two and a half years. The company plans to spend close to a billion dollars on advertising the new product to its 60 million-strong database of sports betting customers.
According to Caesars executives, we can expect the online betting operator to be losing money over the coming quarters before the business matures, but to eventually generate a return of at least 50% on the substantial investment that the company will be making.
While Tom Reeg and other executives seem confident about the new app, some analysts have called their claims into question considering the volatile nature of the business. The these critics, Reeg responded:
“This is a unique situation. You’ve got a bit of the Wild West, where things opened up quickly and everybody is looking for where the customers are. If you look at the companies that have very large databases coming into this or even look at the ones that have been successfully converting smaller databases, it’s because they know where the customers are.”
