Moloco: how operators can turn major sporting events into lasting growth

Ahead of exhibiting at SBC Summit 2026, Ben Holmes, Growth Director at Moloco, advises operators on how best to buy ads at speed and to prove where the budget actually goes when acquiring players around major sporting events. Major sporting events create one of the year’s strongest opportunities for iGaming operators to acquire high-value players -and one of the most competitive. Interest spikes and betting activity accelerates, with operators competing for the same audiences inside a narrow window. That competition changes what effective acquisition looks like. The registration volume alone says little about success. A stronger approach could be to optimise further down the funnel, towards first-time deposits or repeat wagering, even when that means paying more initially for players with better long-term economics. These events also provide something more durable: a concentrated view of which behaviours predict longer-term player value. The question is not only how much demand an operator captured, but what the event taught the team to do differently next time. Three questions are worth answering before the next major sporting event: 1. What can we learn about our highest-value players? 2. How can we respond in the moment while keeping the right controls? 3. What visibility will help us make better decisions? At Moloco, we work with sportsbook, fantasy-sports and prediction-market advertisers through these events. Moloco Ads is an AI-native app advertising platform that helps mobile app advertisers acquire and re-engage users at scale. Beyond search and social, Moloco Ads gives advertisers access to more than 2.8 million independent apps globally(1). Across major sporting events, we find the more durable value lies in improving the decisions made in the next campaign – not only the results reported in the current one. What can we learn about our highest-value players? Major events generate behavioural signals in volume: registration, first-session depth, first deposit, bet type and stake size, whether a player returns on day two. Firstly, operators should establish which of those predict downstream value—repeat wagering, revenue, 30-day retention—then steer optimisation on those outcomes rather than registration counts alone. Footnote 1 Moloco internal platform data. Moloco internal estimate of potential daily user reach, based on an average of five sample business days in March and April 2026. Reach is measured by bid requests received across Moloco’s integrated exchange partners and its proprietary SDK on Android and iOS devices. Each device is assigned to a single country to prevent double-counting; tablets are excluded through deterministic classification using exchange signals and device model matching; and country-specific device-to-user calibration factors are applied. They should pick the business event that best represents value, confirm the signal passes back accurately, and evaluate campaigns against it. An AI system optimises towards the objective it is given, so move optimisation and measurement as far down the funnel as data quality and conversion volume allow. On Moloco Ads, that can mean optimising towards ROAS or a meaningful in-app event such as a first-time deposit. The important decision stays with the operator: define player value before launch, not after results arrive. A player who costs more to acquire during a final may still deliver better economics than a cheaper registration that never deposits. The aim is not the lowest acquisition cost. It is knowing which acquisitions last. How can we respond in the moment while keeping the right controls? Among leading sportsbook, fantasy-sports and prediction-market advertisers using Moloco to reach US iOS users, first-time-deposit volume in the hour before Super Bowl LX kickoff increased 120x compared with the 2025 hourly average, while cost per first-time deposit was 70% lower(2). Sporting demand does not move in a straight line. Interest can rise sharply before a match, shift throughout the day, and fall soon after the result. Not every spike merits additional investment. Before the event, define the outcome that determines success, the demand windows that justify extra spend, and the point at which budgets return to normal. Day-level and intraday pacing can then concentrate spend around those windows, while dynamic creative can keep messaging relevant as odds, matchups or jackpot figures change. Operators set the boundaries: the target outcome, budget ceilings, eligible markets and audiences, and brand or compliance requirements. Within those boundaries, Moloco’s AI can adjust bids and pacing as demand changes. What visibility helps operators scale with confidence? Footnote 2 Moloco internal platform data. Analysis of leading Moloco sportsbook, fantasy-sports, and prediction-market advertisers during Super Bowl LX on 8 February 2026, targeting US iOS users. First-time deposits are indexed to 2025 hourly averages; Moloco-attributed events only. Approved in the Moloco Ads Marketing Claims Tracker through 31 December 2026. Performance reporting and placement transparency are often considered separately. For iGaming operators, they support the same decision: whether a campaign can scale with confidence. Marketers need to know where ads appeared, which publishers and placements drove first-time deposits, and how the budget was allocated. In iGaming, that reporting does more than explain performance: it helps marketing, compliance and safer-gambling teams assess whether placements align with the operator’s brand and regulatory requirements before scaling spend. Publisher-level reporting provides visibility after delivery. Geographic targeting and curated publisher allow-lists give operators additional controls when restrictions are required.[6] The goal is not to maintain long manual lists, but to verify where spend ran and agree in advance who reviews an exception. For example, when one publisher delivers unusual volume at an unusually low cost per first-time deposit. These capabilities support,but do not replace,an operator’s own compliance processes. Fanatics Betting and Gaming used publisher-level reporting to verify that inventory aligned with its quality and brand-safety standards. The resulting visibility gave the team confidence to expand its campaign footprint with Moloco into additional US states. “That level of transparency gave us the confidence to expand our relationship with Moloco and launch campaigns in more states,” said Blair Hilton, Director of Performance Marketing at Fanatics Betting and Gaming. Visibility belongs in the plan, not the post-mortem. It is what lets a team verify placement quality and keep scaling without waiting on a compliance question it cannot answer. Turn event learning into a repeatable advantage The value of a major sporting event should not be measured only by what happened while it was taking place. These moments reveal which signals were most predictive of lasting value, and how quickly campaigns adapted when conditions changed. A post-event review should answer: • Which early behaviours were most predictive of longer-term value? • Which budget changes materially improved performance? • Which audiences should be re-engaged after the event? • Which measurement or control gaps should be addressed before the next major sporting event? Used well, that learning turns a short-lived rise in demand into a repeatable growth advantage. Continuing the conversation at SBC Summit The industry gathers at SBC Summit 2026 in Lisbon from 29 September to 1 October. The programme spans themes including AI, digital marketing, player protection and player experience. Together, these themes raise a practical question: can operators use AI to pursue higher-value growth, respond while demand is concentrated and maintain the visibility needed to scale responsibly? Moloco’s iGaming team will be in Lisbon to continue that conversation with operators preparing for their next major sporting event: what to optimise towards, when to react and what evidence teams need before scaling. Book a meeting with the Moloco team at SBC Summit or find us at Booth F641.