• by Wayne Friedman , December 27, 2023

Sports gambling TV ad spend is now up 10% in total spend to $237.8 million, with a sharp rise in impressions and airings for the sports TV-heavy programming period September 1 through December 26, according to estimates from EDO Ad EnGage.

Sports gambling impressions were up 52% to a total of 20.7 billion -- up from 13.6 billion a year ago, primarily due to airings more than doubling (to 59,81) versus 26,950 airings the year before.

Sports gambling TV ads have also seen a significant surge on non-sports TV networks including TBS (3,270 airings); FXX (3,010); truTV (3,130); Discovery Life Channel (2,160); and American Heroes Channel (4,960), to name a few.

There has been a shift in spending in the category, with more money going to Amazon Prime Video -- which has seen a strong rise in its viewership for the NFL's “Thursday Night Football" versus a year ago. 

National TV spend on “TNF” is estimated to be $41.0 million for the nearly four-month period -- up from $27.9 million a year ago.

In addition, ABC -- which is running a complete “Monday Night Football” this season, to boost prime-time programming from the lack of entertainment scripted content due to the writers' and actors' strike -- moved up $11.9 million from $4.6 million.

Networks showing losses on this front appear to include NBC and Fox, with NBC at $12.4 million ($20.2 million a year ago) in online sports gambling ads for its NFL programming and Fox at $10.7 million ($24.4 million in 2022).

ESPN also witnessed a downward shift in sports gambling TV advertising, apparently due to more games airing on its sister network ABC -- at $6.22 million, down from $10.2 million.

For this year, CBS appears to be a steady TV network in the category, with its Sunday NFL afternoon programming at $31.9 million -- coming in at second place in the category to Prime Video. CBS is virtually unchanged from $31.5 million a year ago.