There is more premium linear and connected TV (CTV) inventory available than there are buyers for it — which means you can reach your ideal player below what the same audience costs you on paid social. Element Media Direct helps iGaming and social casino operators move on that window: the right placements, full regulatory compliance, and the measurement to prove every dollar.
The iGaming and social casino acquisition model has a structural problem. Same inventory, same bidders, rising cost — quarter after quarter. The question isn't whether it's happening. It's what to do about it.
Every quarter, more capital chases the same finite pool of sports media and search inventory every operator depends on — new categories of advertisers included. More money against fixed supply has one outcome: your cost to reach the same player goes up, whether or not your strategy changed.
DraftKings grew marketing spend 17% in Q1 2026. Revenue also grew 17%. No leverage gained. When acquisition spend and revenue scale at exactly the same rate, the math is running in place — and it gets more expensive, not less, as more capital enters the auction.
"We can't attribute TV cleanly" sounds like rigor. It isn't. It measures your ability to track TV's contribution — not its actual contribution. The player who sees you on a Tuesday, thinks about it for three weeks, and searches your name gets credited to paid search. The CTV placement that built the intent gets credited to nothing.
Performance media captures existing demand. It does nothing to build future demand. The player who converts in March was shaped by what they encountered in January — where performance media wasn't. A TV strategy reaches that player early, before their intent forms and before your competitor does.
Rush Street Interactive grew 41% in Q1 2026 while spending just 12.5% of revenue on marketing — the lowest ratio among major US operators. The explanation isn't a better algorithm. It's a model that builds genuine brand preference rather than promotional capture. Brand and performance are not opposing forces. They are a false dichotomy most iGaming and social casino companies haven't yet resolved.
This isn't TV advertising from the 1990s. It's a rigorous, measurable, fully compliant approach to the one premium channel your competitors haven't figured out how to use — yet.
Performance media captures the players already looking for you. TV builds the pool of future players who will seek you out by name — not by category. We design TV and CTV strategies that fill the top of the funnel your digital stack can't reach, lowering customer acquisition cost (CAC) across every channel downstream.
You cannot outbid the field on a search keyword. You can own premium TV placements that sit entirely outside auction dynamics. Right now that inventory is underpriced — supply exceeds demand — and we identify, negotiate, and secure the placements that protect your media budget and deliver share of voice digital can't replicate at scale.
We hold direct relationships with the gaming authorities in every US state where gambling advertising is permitted — which means early guidance outsiders simply can't get. We have direct lines to the local affiliates and broadcasters in those states, and the same safeguards extend across CTV and addressable. You stay fully compliant by default. It's part of the system, not your problem to manage.
Spot attribution, brand lift studies, incrementality testing, matched-market analysis — we build the measurement infrastructure that lets TV speak the language of your finance team. The goal is to make television as accountable as any digital channel, because it can be. We've done it before, for operators who had the exact objections you have right now.
Not theory. A decade of buying national television to grow a subscription business — plus the regulatory infrastructure built specifically for gaming.
We've worked with BODi (by Beachbody) since 2015, buying media across the United States to grow a direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription business — the same recurring-revenue model that defines social casino. For a category whose economics live and die on lifetime value, "we did this for a major DTC subscription brand for a decade" is the most relevant proof we can offer.
Direct relationships with state gaming authorities, local affiliates, and broadcasters across every market where gambling advertising is legal — with iGaming creative clearance experience in regulated environments. This is the part most operators fear most about TV, and the part we absorb entirely.
You're not handed to a junior account coordinator. Peter Sengenberger brings 25 years across television, CTV, out-of-home (OOH), paid social, search, and performance marketing — founding and running agencies and owning profit-and-loss (P&L) at scale. You work directly with the person doing the thinking.
The structural opportunity in US iGaming and social casino television isn't a future possibility. It's a present reality — and the data is unusually clear about it.
The operators who bought NFL linear inventory in the years after PASPA (the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was struck down in 2018) built brand advantages that have proven nearly impossible to replicate through digital alone. The category understands what broadcast reach can do at scale. What it doesn't yet have is a modern playbook for executing it efficiently in streaming — the right measurement, the right targeting logic, and a buying structure that avoids the fee-stacking that's made early CTV tests inconclusive. That's what Element Media Direct was built to provide.
Element Media Direct is a specialized TV and CTV consultancy built for iGaming and social casino operators in the US market. When you work with us, you're working directly with senior strategy on every engagement — not a holding-company org chart.
Peter Sengenberger brings 25 years across television, connected TV, out-of-home, paid social, search, and performance marketing. He has founded and run agencies, led go-to-market (GTM) strategy at growth-stage brands, and owned profit-and-loss at scale. He came to this market because the gap between where the audience is and where the advertising budget goes is one of the most significant structural mismatches he's encountered.
We work with a select number of clients at a time. Our execution spans TV buying across US markets, with established measurement methodology and regulatory clearance experience in every state where gambling advertising is permitted. We are not a holding company — you get direct access to the strategy, the relationships, and the thinking, without the overhead.
Mid-tier and growth-stage operators building a TV capability alongside their performance stack — before the window on current pricing closes.
bet365, Betfred, Betsson, Novibet — we bridge global broadcast budgets and the structural complexity of the US media market. We've built careers inside it.
CTV is the one direct-response acquisition channel that hasn't been purpose-built for social casino. We build the measurement and buying infrastructure to make it work.
An emerging category facing the same acquisition-cost pressure and brand-building need. If TV fits your model, we should talk.
How to move on underpriced television inventory, stay fully compliant, and build measurement your finance team will actually trust — written for operators who've maxed out paid social. Tell us where to send it.
Let's look at your current channel mix and find where television fits — and where it doesn't. No deck. No pitch. A direct conversation about your specific situation in the US market. We work with a small number of clients at a time. If the timing is right, let's find out.
Element Media Direct