- Kindred Group owned Unibet has announced a promotional partnership with the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers.
- Unibet will receive the ‘Official Sportsbook Partner’ designation and a variety of collaborative promotions.
- Unibet became an ‘Official Sportsbook Partner’ of the Philadelphia Eagles in October 22.
Despite ridiculously high taxes, the Pennsylvania gaming market is a vigorous one with 13 companies providing mobile and retail sports betting. At the time of this writing, Pennsylvania is the largest sports betting legal state by population in the USA. Since I’m not overly optimistic about Florida and New York’s ability to not completely screw up sports betting Pennsylvania will likely remain the largest US state with some semblance of a decent gaming ecosystem. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are both iconic sports betting cities so you can file the Keystone State into the ‘too big to fail’ category. One can only imagine the size and scope of the industry’s contribution to the state if Pennsylvania had a reasonable tax rate and regulatory framework. Not only would it be a great market for bettors it would bring about significant job creation and ancillary economic benefits for all Pennsylvanians. You think that would be of interest to a state with one of the ten highest unemployment rates in the country.
Pennsylvania is also home to some of the country’s most passionate sports fans and as a result sports betting companies have focused much of their marketing effort on forging partnerships with teams in the state. The latest company to announce a deal is Kindred Group owned sportsbook brand Unibet which has become an ‘Official Sportsbook Partner’ of the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers have previously brokered sponsorship deals with BetMGM and FanDuel. Unibet is also an ‘Official Sportsbook Partner’ of Pennsylvania’s other NFL team, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Here’s the announcement from the press release along with some of the particulars of the deal:
Unibet will add a second National Football League Partner ahead of the upcoming football season. The partnership with the Pittsburgh Steelers will enhance the Steelers’ fan experience both at home and in the stadium.
Ahead of the upcoming football season, Kindred Group’s sportsbook brand Unibet announces a partnership with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The partnership, which is Unibet’s second National Football League Partner, will include robust digital collaboration across social media channels, sweepstakes for fans to enter, and more. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Unibet will also collaborate to support the local community.
Unibet is also bringing in brand ambassadors for gameday events and will create a ‘unique, Steelers themed casino game’ for their mobile igaming app.
Manuel Stan SVP, US Kindred Group, is excited to add one of the NFL’s iconic franchises to his company’s sponsorship portfolio:
“We are excited to partner up with one of the most beloved professional sports franchises. With a great history and bright future ahead, the Steelers have incredibly passionate and engaged fans. This is an exciting step in Western Pennsylvania for us. With this partnership we will continue to grow our share of voice in Pennsylvania, strengthen our connection to local fans and support future launches in neighbouring States.”
Ryan Huzjak, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Steelers, shares this sentiment:
“We are excited to welcome Unibet to the Steelers family. This partnership will provide brand new opportunities for Steelers Nation, both on gamedays at Heinz Field and throughout the season. We are looking forward to bringing these enhancements to our fans.”
Unibet doesn’t have the high profile nationally of some of their competitors like BetMGM or FanDuel so this kind of targeted investment is a good move for them to increase brand awareness in a huge betting jurisdiction. The average NFL regular season game attracts an audience of 15.4 million viewers and that’s a lot of eyeballs Kindred can leverage as they continue to build their brand in the US.
