US TV and CTV for gaming operators
Scale new UA in ways digital alone never can. CTV and broadcast TV.
Element Media Direct plans, buys and measures US television and connected TV (CTV) for gaming operators. Seven categories, each with its own legal map, and one standard: every dollar measured against payback.
Why now
Why TV is the hottest acquisition channel in America right now.
Five trends are moving at once. Together they mean more chances to reach your customer, with better targeting, at a lower price.
Attention still lives on the big screen
Watching something on the TV is what Americans do every night, whether it's broadcast, Netflix or YouTube. That habit hasn't changed. Streaming is now 47.5% of all US TV time (Nielsen, December 2025), and it plays on the same screen on the wall.
Inventory has exploded
Streaming platforms and free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels have multiplied in 5 years. Gracenote counts more than 1,300 FAST channels in the US, and the active count nearly doubled between mid-2023 and 2025.
TV now buys like digital
CTV targeting and ad tech have improved fast. You can buy by household, geography and audience data, then measure results the way you measure paid social. Most operators haven't touched it yet.
More supply means lower CPMs
More inventory chasing a limited pool of advertisers pushes prices down. You get more chances to reach your customer at a lower cost per thousand impressions (CPM).
Impact a feed can't match
A spot on the biggest screen in the room, sound on, with a viewer settled in, lands harder than an ad scrolled past on TikTok, Instagram or YouTube Shorts. Eye-tracking research finds TV ads hold active attention longer than social ads of the same length.
Put it together
The same attention, far more inventory, sharper targeting and lower prices. Operators who move now buy that audience before the rest of the category catches up.
Why TV
Efficient digital acquisition has hit a ceiling. TV raises it.
Budgets pile into the same auctions, so costs climb while the signal degrades. Past a point you're paying more to reach the same people. Television works on a different part of the funnel.
Scale nothing else matches
TV is still one of the largest advertising media in America. 120 million US households watch connected TV alone, and a single spot reaches more people at once than any feed.
New customers, not the same ones
TV is top of funnel and impossible to miss. It reaches people where they are, including the ones your digital buy can't find or has already exhausted.
Your digital works harder
TV builds awareness in a way that sticks, so people search for you, click your ads and convert. Branded search, direct traffic and app store conversion all lift when TV runs.
Trust converts
Nearly half of US adults rank TV the most trustworthy ad channel. Social manages 19%. In a category that asks people to deposit money, that gap shows up in conversion.
Accountable
Geo-level incrementality tests, impression-level CTV logs and marketing mix modeling (MMM). TV reports in the same units as your paid social.
The leaders proved it
US sports betting operators spent $416M on national TV in one year. FanDuel and DraftKings are the two biggest TV advertisers in the category and its two market leaders.
Services
One senior point of contact, from plan to proof.
The US is the largest and most fragmented media market in the world: 210 local markets, a national broadcast layer, and a CTV landscape split across a dozen platforms. Scale is easy to buy. Knowing where it converts is the job.
Media strategy
Where TV fits your mix, which states and audiences come first, and what it should return. Modeled from your current customer acquisition cost (CAC) and payback window.
Media buying
National broadcast, cable, CTV, audio and out-of-home (OOH), with direct network relationships built over 25 years. As a US company, we can act as your agency of record.
Creative production
Broadcast-ready spots made for TV, with compliance and responsible-gaming elements built in at production. Included in a launch.
Measurement and reporting
Weekly cost per acquisition by state, daypart and creative, plus incrementality designs that show whether TV caused the growth.
Sectors
Seven categories. Seven legal maps.
iGaming
$10.7B2025 revenue, 7 statesOnline casino, state by state. Measurement is cleaner here than anywhere.
Sports betting
$167Bwagered in 202531 states plus DC online. Bought to the sports calendar.
Social casino
50 of 51jurisdictions openNo licence, national reach, and an audience already watching daytime TV.
Sweepstakes casino
$14.3BGold Coin sales, 2025Losing paid search and social. The map changes monthly.
Tribal gaming
$46.2Brecord revenue, fiscal 2025Destination casinos, bought by drive-time radius and measured in visits.
Prediction markets
$24Btraded per monthFederal rails, national from launch, live-sport adjacency.
Card rips
$2Bone platform's sales paceDigital pack rips. The newest category, and the least settled.
Proof
Trusted brands we've bought media for and grown.
Case: BODi (by Beachbody)
A decade of national TV for a subscription business.
We've bought US television and CTV for BODi since 2015 to grow a direct-to-consumer subscription business. Recurring revenue and lifetime value drive it, the same economics as social casino and iGaming.
The US TV Playbook for Gaming OperatorsFree download
The US TV Playbook
All 7 categories mapped. Who can advertise where, how US TV is bought, what it costs, and how to measure it so finance signs off.
Who you'll work with
Peter Sengenberger, Managing Director
Peter has spent 25 years on every side of the table: advertiser, agency owner, creative director and ecommerce operator. Long enough to watch several channels go from cheap to crowded, and to have carried the number himself when they did.
One question drives the work: where does the next dollar go furthest? Sometimes the answer is TV. When it isn't, he'll tell you, and when it is, he'll prove it with incrementality testing and MMM.
He contributes to WARC and other marketing periodicals, and his book on marketing fundamentals for media is out in 2027.
Contact
Let's accomplish your wildest goals and slash your CAC.
You'll talk to me directly. If TV isn't the right next dollar for you, I'll say so.