Caesars Vows to Curb Spending on Sportsbook Advertising

Caesars Sportsbook has featured one of the more unique ad campaigns compared to other sportsbooks, with J.B. Smoove headlining as a spokesperson promoting the company's sports betting offerings through Roman-themed advertisements.

The TV spots have included Peyton, Eli and Archie Manning in addition to other celebrity cameos.

Caesars Announces Change of Plans for Ads

As notable as those ads have been, don’t expect to see much more advertising from Caesars in the future.

“You are going to see us dramatically curtail our traditional media spend effective immediately,” Caesars Entertainment Inc. CEO Tom Reeg said during Tuesday’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “We have accomplished what we set out to do. We set out to become a significant player, and it happened significantly quicker than we thought. And I think most of you know me as someone who’s not one to spend any money needlessly.

“We’ve gotten to where we need to be. You’re going to see our commercials largely disappear from your screens … There’s some media spend that we couldn’t get out of coming into March Madness in a couple of states, but we will largely be off of traditional media other than in new launch states from here and launch dates in both iGaming and sports.”

According to Reeg, Caesars accounts for 21% of the overall sports betting handle in the United States for the month of January. That includes larger handle markets such as Pennsylvania and Illinois, where Caesars has just 1% and 2% market share since they have yet to roll out the Liberty brand.

“Notice I’m not cherry-picking markets, where we’re doing well and leaving markets where we’re not,” Reeg said. “That has exceeded our expectations.

“In the original framework, of course, we had market share expectations. We’ve already exceeded them. So what you’re going to see from us as we move forward is you’re going to see us moving toward profitability.” Expansion to new states might help achieving this goal. The brand is eyeing Maryland and Ohio online sports betting launches that are still months away. Still, opening the Caesars Ohio sportsbook will help it achieve its growth goals.

Revenues Reported, Sale on Strip

Caesars reported a net loss of $434 million on $2.6 billion in net revenues for the three-month period ending on Dec. 31. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Caesars had a net loss of $555 million on revenues of $1.6 billion.

Caesars’ total revenue for 2021 was $9.6 billion, which was almost triple the revenue it tallied in 2020. The company reported a net loss of about $1 billion for the full year.

Caesars also remains open to selling one of its properties on the Las Vegas Strip. Its Las Vegas Strip resorts include Caesars Palace, Paris Las Vegas, Planet Hollywood, The Cromwell, Flamingo, The LINQ, Harrah’s and Bally’s.

“The next time we talk to you about a Strip asset sale, it will be to announce that sale," Reeg said during the call.