A new entrant in the US betting market is poised to make waves, and that is Fox Bet.
A combination of Fox Sports and BetStars – the former buying a 5% stake of the latter in order to brand their BetStars app as Fox Bet in the United States – is expected to launch in PA prior or around the start of football season. Expect Fox Bet to be very promotional in the early going as it competes with the likes of DraftKings, FanDuel, and SugarHouse.
Immediately, however, Fox will stand out from the crowd. By virtue of being associated with Fox football broadcasts and FS1 and FS2 programming, Fox will be able to gain consumer awareness almost immediately with very little ad spend. When you layer on top of that mainstream ad spend, TV buys, and digital marketing, Fox should be able to compete with any other betting brand.
What’s most notable is that a recent survey found that more people would be comfortable betting with Fox than any other name currently in the space. Fox is known by virtually the entire population of the United States, and this is a huge differentiating factor in where someone wants to invest and wager their money. Still, the app will have to perform.
We like BetStar’s current interface even if it can be spruced up and improved a bit. It is simply laid out, has a wide variety of action, and they offer tons of odds boosts.
One of the areas they’ve fallen down a bit, however, is in their marketing, as they clearly have a very Euro-centric feel to their promotion.
But they’re hiring a staff of at least eight people to work in their new Cherry Hill office and run Fox Bet. This will bring much more local flavor and have some boots on the ground to run the brand effectively in the United States.
Whether they compete with DraftKings and FanDuel is up in the air, but look for Fox Bet to be one of the big US betting brands very soon.