DOUBLING DOWN ON WINNERS FOR A GROWING SPORTS-BOOK START-UP
The sports betting app NO HOUSE ADVANTAGE puts a fresh spin on traditional player prop betting — wagering on an athlete’s player statistics rather than the result of a game. Most apps only allow prop bets when playing against the house, but NHA users vie against one another in dynamic peer-to-peer contests similar to fantasy sports gameplay. The goal is to earn more points than other players in the same contest, and walk away with a cash win.
BUSINESS ACQUIRED
Q3 2022 - Corstone Capital acquired a majority stake in No House Advantage for $10MM
Q4 2023 - Client fully acquired for an undisclosed amount
Services
Provided
Strategic Planning
Meta Ads
Google Ads
Twitter Ads
Creative Consulting
App Store Optimization
Apple Search Ads
Digital Analytics & Tracking
The
Objective
Acquire new app users and grow the NHA Brand
The
Challenge
Only a few months after launching, the founder of NHA challenged Lineout to scale his sports book platform through aggressive user acquisition. The client had very limited budgets both for ad spend and management fees, and needed impressive results to attract investors and buyers.
Given the extremely competitive nature of the sports betting industry, several powerful incumbent brands, and the complexities of legal compliance around wagering, this was a challenge like no other.
Tactics
Identify growth opportunities within sporting events whose audiences were underserved by NHA’s competitors
Diversify media channels to find new marketing efficiencies
Capitalize on live sporting events in real time to capture new bettors on NFL, NBA, MLB, PGA, eSports, and FIFA contests
Build client’s infrastructure for ad deployment around live sports
Overhaul ad accounts’ organizational structure on existing platforms
A/B test ad creative & audiences
Implement new data analysis tools to enhance measurement of marketing effectiveness.
Develop feedback loop with client’s creative agency, providing performance insights and recommendations for future content development
The
Approach
We began our engagement marketing two popular sports that drove the business — the NFL and the NBA — using Facebook and Google ads. Our first priority was recentering the strategy and tracking technology around app-install conversion. Next, we built audiences corresponding to different stages of the customer journey and launched corresponding campaigns.
To stretch the client’s media budget and increase our impact, we took every opportunity to lower the average cost per app install CPI, including partnering with the client’s creative agency to share insights on content performance.
We worked directly with Google to gather insights and research competitors. Subsequently, we enhanced our ad-effectiveness measurements, adding average revenue per user ARPU and customer acquisition cost CAC to our optimization framework.
As the success of the business grew, we expanded our efforts, developing a fully integrated digital strategy and attribution methodology that spanned online and offline conversions. This also included deploying Twitter ads, Apple search ads, and fully optimizing the client’s listing in both the Android and Apple app stores in an effort to fuel organic growth and lower the blended CPI.
While we tested into new tactics, we continued to deliver results by increasing budgets on our already-proven channels for acquisition, essentially doubling down on tactics that were already working.
In the third year of our partnership, Corstone Capital acquired No House Advantage for $10M.
The
Result
Lineout delivered on the challenge to increase app install volume, with a jump of 497% after 12 months. Using cross-channel optimizations and data insights, the gains were achieved efficiently.
Click volume increased (by 252%) in line with the click-through rate (that rose 168%), resulting in a cost per install average that was 28.47% lower than the previous benchmark. Beyond KPI performance, Lineout served as a trusted partner to its client during a period of intensive growth and uncertainty, consulting on digital strategies outside of marketing and across myriad channels.
- 497%App install increase
- 252%Click volume increase
- 168%Click-through rate increase