Element Media Direct helps iGaming and social casino operators unlock the performance potential of linear and connected TV — with the measurement infrastructure to prove every dollar.
The iGaming and social casino acquisition model has a structural problem. The same inventory, the same bidders, the same escalating costs — quarter after quarter. The question isn't whether this is happening. The question is what to do about it.
Prediction markets — Kalshi, Polymarket — are now buying into the same sports media and search inventory every iGaming and social casino operator depends on. They're not bidding to profitability. They're bidding for presence. Every dollar they spend is a dollar of added cost for operators who were already there.
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 the performance loop gets more expensive, not less, as more capital enters the auction.
"We can't attribute TV cleanly" sounds like rigor. It isn't. It's a model that measures your ability to track TV's contribution — not TV's actual contribution. The player who sees your brand on a Tuesday, thinks about it for three weeks, and searches your name directly gets attributed to paid search. The CTV placement that built the intent gets attributed to nothing.
Performance media captures existing demand. It does nothing to build future demand. The iGaming and social casino player who becomes your customer in March was shaped by what they encountered in January. Performance media wasn't there. A TV strategy reaches that player early — before their intent forms and before your competitor does.
This isn't TV advertising from the 1990s. It's a rigorous, measurable approach to the one premium channel your competitors haven't figured out how to use — yet.
Performance media captures the players already looking for what you offer. 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 CAC across every channel downstream. The operators who invest in demand creation in 2026 will own audience relationships their competitors will pay three times as much to build in 2029.
You cannot outbid Kalshi on a search keyword. You can own a premium TV placement they cannot touch. A well-structured linear and CTV buy exists entirely outside the auction dynamics that are inflating iGaming and social casino acquisition costs. We identify, negotiate, and secure the placements that protect your media budget from competitive pressure — and deliver the share of voice that digital simply cannot replicate at scale.
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 same objections you have right now. The question isn't whether TV can be measured. The question is whether you've built the right framework to see what it's doing.
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.
of total US TV viewing is now connected television. The core iGaming and social casino demographic — males 25–54 who follow sports, and women 30–55 who play casual games — over-indexes on ad-supported streaming. The audience migrated. The advertising budgets haven't followed.
RSI's marketing-to-revenue ratio in Q1 2026 — their lowest ever, in the same quarter they grew 41% year-over-year. The casino-first, brand-adjacent model is outperforming the performance-heavy model at scale. The efficiency gap is real and it's widening.
in annual US iGaming and social casino marketing spend across the major operators — and TV and CTV remain the single most underinvested premium channel relative to where the audience actually watches. The gap between spend allocation and audience attention is one of the wider mismatches in any category.
The operators who bought NFL linear inventory in the years after PASPA built brand advantages that have since 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 the streaming environment — with the right measurement approach, the right targeting logic, and the buying structure to avoid the fee-stacking and margin problems that have 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 exclusively for iGaming and social casino operators in the US market. When you work with us, you're not handed off to a junior account coordinator. You're working directly with senior strategy on every engagement.
Peter Sengenberger brings 25 years of experience across television, connected TV, OOH, paid social, search, and performance marketing. He has founded and run agencies, led go-to-market strategy at growth-stage brands, and owned P&L at scale across categories. He came to the iGaming and social casino 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 — US and international iGaming operators, social casino platforms, and sweepstakes brands navigating the intersection of performance pressure and brand investment. Our execution infrastructure spans TV buying across US markets and 50+ countries globally, with established measurement methodology and iGaming creative clearance experience in regulated markets.
We are not a holding company. You get direct access to the strategy, the relationships, and the thinking — without the overhead.
bet365, Betfred, Betsson, Novibet — we bridge the gap between global broadcast budgets and US media market complexity. The US TV market is structurally different from any other in the world. We've built careers inside it.
Mid-tier and growth-stage operators looking to build a TV capability alongside their performance stack — before the window on current pricing closes.
Regulatory pressure is forcing the sweepstakes category to build mainstream credibility. Broadcast is the channel that delivers it. Digital alone won't get you there.
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.
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.