At first glance, the sports betting streaming network SportsGrid may not be the most obvious home for casino-related content. However, as SportsGrid President and Co-Founder Lou Maione explained to SBC Americas, that has been the plan all along. Well, nearly all along.
“So it was in the playbook, probably on day three,” he said.
Maione and the other founders at SportsGrid saw an opportunity beyond just sports betting with the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). Maione had plenty of experience in the fantasy sports space and knew that was an easy entry into the sports betting content space.
“We knew sports betting and casino was going to be big in 2018, so we took that view of the world that will lead with our expertise in content through season long fantasy and daily fantasy, we’ll take all those learnings and understand how to be good operators.”
And there is little argument that SportsGrid has figured out how to succeed. The 24/7 sports betting network, by Maione’s numbers, has 30% of the market, making it the market leader. Moreover, the company’s betting partnerships indicate that the network is a viable way for operators to acquire customers.
Maione said SportsGrid understood the same could work for casino, which is why it has been part of the big picture from the get go. As he explained it as well, the approach at sports betting is to start with the big picture.
“We always look at the press release, and we work backwards,” he said. “We create the press release, we write it, then we fulfill it and then come out with it. And I think that’s where we are with casino now.”
In other words, the company hasn’t announced plans, they’ve announced something that has been in the works for quite some time. The expansion into casino content includes some huge names, such as Brian Christopher and former PointsBet ambassador Paige Spiranac.
Those names are great, but Maione noted that the real appeal of casino content, what he referred to as the “talent”, is the games themselves. Casino fans have their favorite slots and table games and that is what is going to draw viewers in initially.
“I think that’s what’s really cool about what we’re building, is that it’s the not only ability for us to drive entertainment and drive people through a funnel, but it’s also to get them engaged through the product, which is the talent, which is low cost, and then the actual influencer brings their audience into the picture. And I think if you can build an influencer network around particular products, it can be probably ten times bigger than anything that you can imagine in sports betting.”
Does this mean that SportsGrid is rebranding to CasinoGrid? Not necessarily. As Maione pointed out, there is some overlap in content, sports betting is really about having actionable information quickly. Casino content, on the other hand, is more education-focused and personality-driven.
Nonetheless, the top six content people at SportsGrid are pivoting over the casino content and working on reshaping the network as the home for gamblers, not just for sports bettors.
“What we’re doing is we’re matching our current talent here with particular games that they love that we think fits their personality.”
That creates opportunities for influencers as well as networks like SportsGrid. While state regulations often limit the scope of influencers working as affiliates, partnerships with groups like SportsGrid open the door for influencers to leverage their audience in the marketplace.
“I’m very interested to see where marketing as a service goes in relation to sports betting, casino, iLottery, sweepstakes. I think an influencer network in a clean, Only Fans-type structure works for influencers because then they can go do what they want to do and let us handle all the business aspects of it,” Maione said.
While more influencers will join the fold, the focus now remains on Christopher and Spiranac. While Christopher has his own team and has been producing slots content for some time, Spiranac will work with producer Scott Lasky to develop content for the platform that suits her personality.
“She makes fun of the industry and she has fun and she’s leaning in,” Maione observed.
Lasky also has plans for Christopher, but Maione noted part of the appeal of working with Team BC is that they know exactly who they are and who their audience is.
“I think there’s a real deep understanding of each other’s wants and needs, what they’re good at, what we’re good at, and the things that I’ve seen on the production side coming out of that camp, and the ideas that Scott has for them are amazing too,” he added.
Production on the concepts for Spiranac and Christopher are underway and SportsGrid should be debuting content in 2025.
“We’re going to push and pull people, and we’re going to see what works, use the data, and then just rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. It’s going to be cool.”
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