FOX Bet, the recently released app from FOX Sports and The Stars Group, enters its third weekend for online betting in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

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It is already making waves in the legal sports betting market.

“In just four months since announcing our historic U.S. media and sports wagering relationship, we successfully launched our FOX Bet products in two states and our nationwide free-to-play games. The pace of progress and the dedication and execution of our team and the FOX Sports team is extraordinary,” said Robin Chhabra, Chief Executive Officer of FOX Bet. “Together with FOX Sports, an icon in sports programing, we believe we’ve built a platform that is like nothing U.S. sports fans have ever seen. We’re bringing those fans closer to the games they love by making our platform more fun and engaging than any other out there.”

FOX Bet becomes the first sports betting app in the United States from a major media company, and they are using all of their promotional leverage to gain traction at the start of the 2019 NFL season. Throwing a combination of Colin Cowherd, Cousin Sal, Charissa Thompson, Nick Wright, and Terry Bradshaw at the promotion of both the betting app and the free-to-play Super 6 app, FOX Sports is in a position unlike any other brand. It also happens to offer a great betting app for casual players.

Great App

FOX Bet strikes the perfect balance between offering features experienced bettors expect and making the app accessible for novices.

The FOX Bet app (download Pennsylvania version here and New Jersey version here) is easy to pick up and play for anyone with even just a bit of betting knowledge (and even for some people without). It walks you through promoted odds boosts from the FOX personalities, which are easy to understand for the casual bettor, and provide value for the experienced one.

Users are given $20 free instantly upon signup to play with as they choose, and then $100 deposit match on their first deposit match.

The brand is also amassing users in its free-to-play Super 6 app, which is available nationwide.

 

User Acquisition Strategy

FOX has announced that it received 280,000 signups and 425,000 total entries in its free-to-play contest, Super 6, which is being promoted heavily on all FOX Sports properties – even more heavily than the FOX Bet app – and using Terry Bradshaw as a spokesperson.

FOX’s Super 6 is offering up a free contest for winners to win real money. The strategy here is to amass a large user base and then as sports betting rolls out across the country, turn those people into FOX Bet players.

In the states where FOX Bet is already accepting wagers, they might be quickly gaining on the competition.

 

Is FOX Bet Already Gaining on FanDuel?

A recently released report from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board showed that FanDuel accepted the most online bets in Pennsylvania last month, taking in a $35 million handle. That beat out SugarHouse Sportsbook, which took in $25 million in bets. This was the first month that FanDuel Sportsbook had been live in the state. All good, right? Maybe. It’s an impressive feat to lead the market after only one month, but this lead is not nearly as large as their lead over their next closest competitor in New Jersey, DraftKings Sportsbook, and it’s certainly a lot closer than their lead over SugarHouse there.

SugarHouse was better positioned in the PA as the first site to launch. But when you combine SugarHouse with its sister site, BetRivers, both owned by Rush Street Interactive, the two brands took in way more bets than FanDuel in August.

This leaves the door open for FOX Bet or someone else.

FanDuel’s lead in New Jersey is so great partly because they generate many new players at their physical sportsbook location at the Meadowlands. In Pennsylvania, however, they only have a smaller location at Valley Forge Casino Resort, and thus this creates more opportunity for a brand like FOX Bet to enter the market and quickly gain traction.

Next month, DraftKings Sportsbook PA will come to Pennsylvania. But for now, FOX Bet is making waves.

 

Strong Marketing

Part of the reason why FOX Bet has been able to get off to such a quick start is because of its ability to reach people on FOX’s organic properties by leveraging their personalities.

Take for example this social media post from Cousin Sal:

Now, I have no allegiance to Cousin Sal (good or bad), but this is excellent marketing. Whereas other touts across the industry profess to know everything, most don’t, and most sports talking heads don’t know much more either. This is self-deprecating, somewhat informative, and actually provides the user with some value.

I actually took this bet. It won. And if it hadn’t, I would have been refunded my money. It was a no-brainer, risk-free boost that created a level of engagement with FOX’s brand and personalities.

They are unique in being able to do this. Other media brands like ESPN, CBS, and Bleacher Report may have plans to enter the legal betting market. Until they do, FOX Bet will continue crushing it.