NHL unveils new in-rink advertisements to increase revenue

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Dorin Canaday
October 4, 2022 (10:09)

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The NHL has unveiled another new advertising idea to maximize the revenue generated throughout the league.

It was reported yesterday that all arenas are removing the traditional signage for ''Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards'' or DEDs for short. The digital space will be primarily for advertisements and allow for flexibility to use the space for in game-graphics, statistics and goal celebrations.

It's been reported by Forbes that sports betting is upping its ad buys in the sports world:

''Historically, advertising in the fourth quarter has been the most expensive of the year, driven by the high demand of the holiday season. Traditional product categories that ramp up their marketing budgets include retailers, toys/games, apparel, alcoholic beverages and movie studios. Plus, every other year, political ads plunk down billions of ad dollars. New to the list will be sports betting.''

This explains the motivation for commissioner Gary Bettman to make such a decision, as the NHL will be receiving ad buys from European Sportsbooks.

''Digitally enhanced dasher boards allow sportsbooks to advertise 'locally,' appearing on the boards for road games to the audience watching back in the home market. That's important, considering not every NHL market has legalized wagering and not every sportsbook has clearance to operate in markets that do.''

It's been reported that sports betting is seasonally focused, which makes sense as in Fall, the NFL and NHL are in full force.

''Sports Betting Revenue: Revenue for sports betting has been climbing. For the first half of 2022, revenue totalled just over $3 billion compared to $4.3 billion for all of last year. Morgan Stanley forecasts revenue to reach $7 billion by 2025. Also, in 2021 Americans bet $57.2 billion on sporting events, a year-over-year increase of 165%.'''

The first time the NHL put advertisements on their boards was in 1981 for the Minnesota North Stars, which included local and national businesses advertising. With the DED system, local advertisers can get ad-time home and away as well.

As per Keith Wachtel, the NHL's chief business officer and executive vice president of global partnerships:

''What this does is allow clubs to sell as many regional game broadcasts as they're able to in their market.''

''Also, competitors come into everyone else's market. So, every time the Rangers play in Philadelphia, Chase [Bank] has to see Wells Fargo ads coming back into their very important New York market. You can now avoid that issue if it's important to own your own market.''