- Caesars Sportsbook has announced the signing of the Manning Family–Archie, Peyton, Eli and Cooper–to a marketing partnership.
- The Mannings will be featured in Caesars advertising and represent the company at live promotional events.
- The family has deep roots in the New Orleans area where Caesars has just launched retail sports betting.
Caesars Entertainment and Caesars Sportsbook has definitely made a splash in the newly opened Louisiana sports betting market over the past few months. The ‘big blow’ was the company’s acquisition of naming rights for the Louisiana Superdome this past summer–the venue was previously known as the Mercedes Superdome. Next up, a deal with LSU Athletics which named Caesars Sportsbook as their ‘exclusive gaming and sportsbook partner’. The press release for this partnership tried to suggest that it was somehow a ‘landmark deal’ and downright revolutionary despite the fact that the University of Colorado signed a similar deal with PointsBet over a year before the Caesars/LSU announcement dropped. Caesars even added the Houston Texans to their sponsorship portfolio–despite Texas’ backwards stance on legal gambling (along with countless other things) it turns out that the Houston market provides a ton of business to the casinos of Louisiana.
Retail sports betting is now up and running in Louisiana and Caesars has launched sportsbooks at two of their properties in the state—Harrah’s New Orleans and Horseshoe Bossier City Hotel & Casino. The Caesars Sportsbook app will be available in Louisiana (well, in 55 of the 64 Parishes in the state) at some point in the future when the state regulators get their act together. The last target date given by the state is ‘early 2022’. My personal guess is ‘mid 2022’ at the earliest. Whenever the Caesars Sports app does launch in the state they’ll have some legitimate Louisiana athletic royalty to help promote it as they’ve signed a promotional deal with the Manning Family.
Yep, that’s the *entire* Manning family. The Caesars Entertainment press release calls it ‘a historic first-of-its-kind partnership between a sports betting company and an iconic sports family’ and I sure can’t think of any previous promotional deals to refute that claim. I’m guessing that it extends to the entire Manning family but the press release did single out the most famous members of the clan–Archie, Peyton, Eli, and Cooper Manning. Not sure what would happen if, say, Peyton’s wife Ashley, wanted to become a brand ambassador for Circa Sports. The Mannings have been referred to as ‘the NFL’s Royal Family’ and since THE Royal Family (the one that lives in London) haven’t signed a brand ambassador deal with any sportsbooks they’ll have to do.
Just in case you haven’t heard of Archie, Peyton or Eli Manning the Caesars Sportsbook press release helpfully provides this synopsis:
The Mannings are the most accomplished family in pro football history. For 35 of the NFL’s 102 seasons, there was a Manning family member starting at quarterback in the league. During their illustrious NFL careers, Archie, Peyton, and Eli combined for 48 seasons, 653 games, four Super Bowl championships, 20 Pro Bowls, 152,874 passing yards and 1,030 passing touchdowns. Even after retiring 37 years ago, Archie is the second-leading passer in New Orleans Saints history. Peyton, who starred in Indianapolis and Denver, was named NFL Most Valuable Player five times, two more than any other player in league history. Eli owns almost every passing record from his time in New York and is one of five players to be named Super Bowl MVP multiple times.
In addition to their on-field excellence, the Mannings are no stranger to off-the-field achievements. Peyton and Eli are the only brothers to win the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, the league’s most prestigious honor, which recognizes a player for his excellence on and off the field. Caesars is also committed to supporting the Mannings’ many charitable initiatives.
Alongside their national efforts, the Mannings have a storied history in New Orleans dating back to Archie’s 10-year stint as starting quarterback for the New Orleans Saints and the brothers’ prestigious high school football careers. The family is lauded in the city as national ambassadors and praised locally for their charitable and civic involvement. This landmark partnership builds upon the already established relationship between Caesars and the Mannings as the company operates the Mannings Sports Bar & Grill out of Harrah’s New Orleans.
Kind of mean to not even *mention* Cooper Manning, who was a pretty good football player himself until he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis prior to entering college at the University of Mississippi. Potential paralysis isn’t something you want to screw around with and thus he was forced to retire from football. Cooper has done well for himself in business and has become a decent broadcaster as well.
As for what the Mannings will be doing in their new role if you guessed ‘fan engagement’ and ‘responsible gaming’ you’ve definitely been paying attention:
Caesars Sportsbook will incorporate the Mannings into a wide array of fan engagement opportunities made possible for sports bettors utilizing the industry-leading loyalty program, Caesars Rewards. Now, not only will bettors earn Tier Credits and Reward Credits with every wager, but members will have the chance to interact directly with the Mannings in various ways through upcoming activations.
In addition to lending their creativity and expertise as advisers, the Mannings will serve as prominent ambassadors for Caesars’ focus on responsible gaming. Drawing a parallel to the importance of staying in control – like they did on the football field every Sunday – the Mannings will highlight the resources that Caesars Sportsbook provides bettors to stay in control of their gaming. The Caesars Sportsbook app features responsible gaming tools as part of its offering, including self-imposed time limits, deposit limits, and spending limits.
Chris Holdren, Co-President of Caesars Digital, focused on the revolutionary deal with an entire famous athletic family:
“This isn’t the typical partnership between a sports betting company and major talent. We’re welcoming the most acclaimed family in football history to be integrated holistically into the Caesars family. Archie, Peyton, Eli, and Cooper are extraordinary people who are champions of their communities and we’re honored to partner with such a prestigious group of individuals.”
At least he mentioned Cooper. When you want to get a quote on behalf of the entire Manning family Peyton is obviously the ‘go to’ guy:
“We’re excited to partner with the team at Caesars Sportsbook. We’re looking forward to interacting with their customers who love sports and love football, and we know Caesars has a lot of fun initiatives planned. They place a strong emphasis on community impact, and we appreciate their support of causes that are important to us.”
‘Fun initiatives’? Actually, the official promo video from the Mannings came from Eli–personally, I think he’s the more entertaining of the two former NFL quarterback brothers:
Caesars also got NFL analyst Trey Wingo–who at some point claimed the title of ‘Chief Trends Officer’ for Caesars Sportsbook–to do a promo video about the Mannings:
Nothing but love for the Manning Family who are all class acts. Good signing for Caesars as they’ll be valuable for promotion not only in Louisiana and Mississippi (where Archie and Eli played college ball) but Tennessee, New Jersey, Indianapolis and Colorado. Smart of those Mannings to spend their NFL careers in future sports betting jurisdictions!
