How Super Bowl LIV Will Deliver a Financial Surge to An Array of Businesses
The Super Bowl is one giant superlative of American sports in many ways. The NFL’s annual championship game draws the most viewers, offers the priciest ticket, spawns the most single-game betting action, and attracts the biggest stars.
The Super Bowl is also a spectacular cash grab for business.
It generates hundreds of millions of dollars every year. That money pours into companies large and small across a variety of sectors.
To illustrate the range of big-game beneficiaries, consider how local small businesses, sportsbooks, and advertising brands all stand to profit.
Local Small Businesses
Business will be booming in Miami when Super Bowl LIV comes to town on February 2, 2020. Hard Rock Stadium, this year’s host venue, is far from the only place set for a windfall. All told, Super Bowl LIV is expected to deliver a $500 million economic impact to South Florida.
Big chains operating in the area will earn big bucks—think hotels, restaurants, and retailers.
Fortunately, there’s room for the smaller, local guys to enjoy a nice payday.
In fact, some South Florida businesses began prepping for a slice of the lucrative pie a year ago.
In late February 2019, more than 500 people attended the Super Bowl LIV Business Connect Informational Lunch at Miami’s Miramar Cultural Center. The event aimed at creating networking and collaboration opportunities for business owners vying for contracts connected to the Super Bowl.
Welcoming business owners to the event was Rashad D. Thomas, vice president of Business Connect and Community Outreach for the Miami Super Bowl Host Committee. Thomas envisions at least $20 million of Miami’s Super Bowl financial influx going to around 300 vendors registered with Business Connect.
Local businesses without a direct link to the Super Bowl will benefit thanks to football-fevered transients.
Officials for the 2019 game estimate that half a million fans, including 150,000 out-of-state visitors, flocked to Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII.
This year’s big game is likely to draw an even greater number. Miami is North America’s sunniest cosmopolitan city and a global tourism destination during the winter months. Expect small businesses to generate millions from hotel rooms, meals, bar tabs, souvenir sales, and rideshares, at the least.
Sportsbooks
Nevada sportsbooks handled a combined $145.9 million of Super Bowl wagers last year. That 2019 figure is in line with total bets flowing through the Silver State during other recent NFL finales and, historically, representative of all authorized Super Bowl betting in the US.
In 2020, the national sports betting picture is a whole lot bigger.
Super Bowl LIII marked the first time residents of states outside of Nevada could place bets on the NFL title with authorized sportsbooks.
Millions more Americans will get their first opportunity to wager on the big game in 2020 as additional regulated sports betting markets open across the country.
To help educate these bettors, some sportsbooks are stepping in with expert analysis from football commentators about the teams and players in Super Bowl contention. Online sportsbooks and those with mobile apps make it possible for customers to access information about the big game or place wagers without stepping foot in a land-based betting facility.
Advertisers
Super Bowl commercials are really expensive.
Advertisers combined to spend more than $400 million purchasing commercial airtime in each of the last three Super Bowls. The average cost of a 30-second spot during Super Bowl LIII in 2019 eclipsed $5.1 million.
At a price tag exceeding 15 times the cost of a commercial during a regular-season NFL game, why do companies continue to spend mightily on Super Bowl ads?
Because it works.
Seth Winter, an executive with stints overseeing ad sales for NBC and FOX Sports, estimates that the return on investment for each Super Bowl commercial is about $10 million in PR value.
Some advertisers leverage Super Bowl spots as centerpieces of multi-channel marketing campaigns. Revenue earned from adjacent channels, like print and social media, can drive the returns of a big game spend even higher.
