Pizza Hut Sponsors Yahoo’s Fantasy Sports Game In Super Bowl Push

What Happened
As part of its multi-channel Super Bowl campaign, Pizza has launched a sponsored fantasy sports game on Yahoo Sports. Dubbed “Squares Pick’em,” the game lets football fans use Pizza Hut-themed grids to compete with friends and family and “score” the Super Bowl matchup. To promote this sponsored game, the pizza chain also bought display, email, and search ads on Yahoo.

What Brands Need To Do
This is the latest example of brands branching out into digital platforms with sponsored or branded content in order to stay engaged with consumers. The company has sponsored ESPN fantasy football for several years, but reportedly decided to branch out to Yahoo Sports to reach a bigger audience. The combined Yahoo Sports-NBC Sports Network had 58.7 million unique visitors in the US on desktop and mobile in December, according to comScore. Fantasy sports is a fast-growing area that more brands looking to capture sports fans should explore.

 


Source: AdExchange

DraftKings Expands Fantasy Sports To eSports

What Happened
Popular fantasy sports site DraftKings is expanding its platform to cover a hot new sport – competitive video gaming, also known as esports. Starting Oct. 1, fantasy sports players and video game enthusiasts will be able to take their bets on the League of Legends 2015 World Championships. DraftKings has also partnered up with several prominent esports teams in a bid to help boost the new addition to its fantasy ranks, similar to the partnerships the company signed with NFL and MLB.

What Brands Should Do
While relatively new, both eSports and online fantasy sports have been showing tremendous growth in recent years. A recent survey by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association reports that over 56.8 million people participated in fantasy sports in 2014. Bringing eSports into the fold would certainly give it a significant boost, in terms of both capital and audience size. As more and more brands infiltrate esports events via sponsorships. Those searching for young millennial guys need to start to pay attention to this burgeoning platform.

    


Source: Mashable