FanDuel Bets on Humor to Launch Its Brand Promise With BBH
FanDuel's More Ways to Win is a film-led brand campaign created by BBH New York, published in the United States in August 2019, that used comedic vignettes of small everyday frustrations to position FanDuel's fantasy sports and sportsbook products as an accessible, rewarding alternative during the NFL preseason.
The campaign arrived at a pivotal moment in the US sports betting market. The United States Supreme Court had overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act on May 14, 2018, according to Surface Syr Edu, opening the door for individual states to legalise sports betting. By the time More Ways to Win went live in August 2019, the competitive window was wide open and FanDuel needed a clear brand voice to match its product ambition. BBH New York had been formally added to FanDuel's agency roster in July 2019 following a competitive review, appointed specifically to lead long-term brand strategy, as reported by adsoftheworld.com. More Ways to Win was the first output of that relationship.
The campaign comprises two media assets and centres on relatable, humorous situations — small domestic hassles rather than grand sporting spectacle — that dramatise the idea that life offers more ways to win than most people realise. As reported by hashtagsports.com, one television execution features a toupee nearly blown off by a bathroom hand dryer, a deliberately absurdist scenario designed to make FanDuel feel warm and human rather than transactional. FanDuel CMO Mike Raffensperger described the relationship with BBH as a vehicle to bring the brand promise of more ways to win to life, according to hashtagsports.com. The campaign targets sports fans across the United States and ran in conjunction with the opening of the NFL preseason, a period of heightened sports media consumption and the natural entry point for fantasy and sportsbook marketing.
FanDuel operated in a daily fantasy sports market that carried both enormous scale and acute competitive pressure in the United States in 2019. The global DFS handle was estimated at roughly three point nine five billion dollars that year, according to Halifax Citynews Ca, with the category registering more than ten million registered users and approximately four point seven million active users, per businessinsider.com. FanDuel and DraftKings together held approximately ninety percent of the DFS market in 2019, according to kleinmoynihan.com, with DraftKings commanding around sixty percent of that share on its own, per kleinmoynihan.com. That competitive imbalance made brand differentiation urgent: FanDuel could not win on scale alone and needed a distinct emotional identity.
The strategic insight driving More Ways to Win was straightforward but precise. Rather than competing with DraftKings on product features or promotional depth, BBH New York positioned FanDuel around a human truth: most people feel the daily grind more acutely than they feel moments of winning, and sports betting offers a genuine counterweight. The humour of small hassles — a toupee in a hand dryer, minor domestic indignities — served as a cultural mirror for the target audience, validating the frustration before offering the platform as relief. In the United States, where legal sports betting was still a novelty in many states, this tonal approach also helped normalise FanDuel's sportsbook offering without leaning into the harder, risk-forward language that characterises some competitor advertising.
Flutter Entertainment had acquired a controlling stake in FanDuel following its merger with Paddy Power Betfair, according to En Wikipedia, giving the brand the financial backing to invest in top-tier agency partnerships and national media at a moment when the US market was structurally opening up. The appointment of BBH New York — a shop with a strong record in brand-building rather than performance marketing — signalled that FanDuel was thinking beyond conversion and toward category leadership.
Director Ulf Johansson helmed the More Ways to Win film executions, working with director of photography Andrzej Sekuła, whose cinematography background spans feature film and commercial production, per imdb.com. Production was handled by Smith and Jones. The combination of a director known for precise comedic timing and a cinematographer with strong visual instincts gave the campaign a polish that elevated what could have been straightforward sketch comedy into something closer to a crafted brand film.
The creative team at BBH New York was led by chief creative officer Gerard Caputo, with creative direction shared across Lucas Bongioanni, Scott Cooney and Diego Fonseca, according to adsoftheworld.com. Senior art director Bruno Franchino and senior copywriter Hora Sormani shaped the visual and verbal tone, with copywriter Jim LeMaitre contributing to the writing and senior digital art director Antonin Collard extending the work across digital formats. Agency producer Shelley Giera oversaw production, according to adsoftheworld.com.
The creative approach placed the comic frustration — the armrest, the hand dryer, the small indignities of daily life — at the centre of the frame rather than the sports betting product itself. This is a structurally sound technique for a category that risks feeling alienating or niche: lead with universal human experience, then introduce the brand as the logical resolution. As reported by hashtagsports.com, Adweek noted the campaign's use of comedic NFL spots as a deliberate tonal choice by BBH to make FanDuel feel accessible to fans who might not yet self-identify as bettors. The More Ways to Win tagline operated both literally, referencing FanDuel's product breadth across fantasy and sportsbook, and emotionally, as a reassurance that engagement with the platform rewards curiosity.
The Shorty Awards case entry for FanDuel's More Ways to Win reports the campaign claimed more than four billion impressions, according to shortyawards.com. The work was entered in both the Sports and Integrated Campaign categories at the Shorty Awards, per shortyawards.com. No independently verified sales or conversion data for the campaign is publicly available beyond these submitted figures, and the Clapboard editorial team notes that impression volume at this scale for a national US launch timed to the NFL preseason is structurally credible given the media weight typically deployed in that window.
No verified performance data measuring direct acquisition, fantasy sign-ups or sportsbook deposits attributable to More Ways to Win is publicly documented. What the campaign's architecture does demonstrate is structural effectiveness in three areas. First, the tonal choice — humour grounded in relatable frustration — is well matched to an NFL-adjacent audience in the United States that responds to entertainment over hard sell. Second, the timing of launch in August 2019 aligned precisely with peak intent among fantasy sports participants ahead of the NFL regular season. Third, the appointment of a brand-strategy agency like BBH New York rather than a performance shop signals that FanDuel was building long-term brand equity rather than pursuing short-cycle conversion.
Clapboard Score: 63 out of 100. The score reflects competent execution of a clear strategic brief, with craft credentials that elevate the work above category average, offset by limited public evidence of measurable business impact and a creative idea that, while well-executed, operates within a familiar comedic register rather than breaking new ground for the category.
More Ways to Win is a FanDuel brand campaign created by BBH New York and published in the United States in August 2019. It used humorous film spots depicting small everyday frustrations to promote FanDuel's fantasy sports and sportsbook products during the NFL preseason, positioning the platform as an accessible way to engage with sport.
BBH New York created the More Ways to Win campaign. The agency was added to FanDuel's roster in July 2019 following a formal review, according to adsoftheworld.com, appointed to lead long-term brand strategy. More Ways to Win was the first campaign to emerge from that relationship, launching in August 2019 ahead of the NFL season.
Ulf Johansson directed the More Ways to Win film executions for FanDuel. He worked alongside director of photography Andrzej Sekuła, per imdb.com, with production handled by Smith and Jones. The creative team at BBH New York was led by chief creative officer Gerard Caputo, with creative directors Lucas Bongioanni, Scott Cooney and Diego Fonseca, according to adsoftheworld.com.
FanDuel and DraftKings held approximately ninety percent of the US DFS market in 2019, according to kleinmoynihan.com, with DraftKings leading at around sixty percent share. More Ways to Win pursued brand differentiation through humour rather than head-on product comparison. The campaign reported more than four billion impressions, per the Shorty Awards entry, though no independent sales data is publicly available.
FanDuel timed the More Ways to Win launch to the NFL preseason in August 2019, the highest-intent period for fantasy sports sign-ups in the United States. The campaign also followed the US Supreme Court's 2018 overturning of PASPA, according to surface.syr.edu, which opened legal sports betting across multiple states and created a strategic window for FanDuel to establish brand leadership.
The armrest is one of several small everyday frustrations used as comic devices in the More Ways to Win campaign. BBH New York built the creative strategy around relatable domestic and social irritations, using them to contrast with the reward of engaging with FanDuel. The approach, reported by hashtagsports.com, was designed to make the platform feel warm and human rather than transactional.
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