The Challenge

BetMGM, of Bellagio and Mandalay Bay fame, decided to enter the biggest gambling market in the world. No easy feat. A market that is overly saturated, remarkably similar, and desperately loud. To succeed we had to do something distinctively BetMGM. Something that would keep users playing, not entice a one-time fling. Let’s also not forget the brand had big ambitions – BetMGM wants to be a top 5 betting brand and gain at least 5% of the market within 5 years. The pressure was well and truly on. 

The Insight

Vegas holds an inimitable pull over our audience. It is not only canonised in culture (with endless films, books and television shows setting themselves there), but it also forms the almost-antithesis to the UK’s restraint and stiff-upper-lip-ness. It is the 3rd most visited city (after NY and LA) in the world, but for many it is still but a pipe dream. 

We are constantly told ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’, which gave us an exciting opportunity to flip the saying on its head. This exciting launch of a betting brand that lives and breathes Vegas enabled us to bring the very best of the city to UK shores.

The Idea

MGM built Vegas, and did it with a heady mix of joyful imagination, unrivalled entertainment and one upmanship. So we set out to prove that when BetMGM does online betting, it does it properly. We didn’t just get a voice over or some average person to front the campaign, we got arguably the biggest showman on the planet, the man who presents the goddamn Oscars, Chris Rock. And Chris Rock isn’t just coming to the UK to tell everyone about what BetMGM have to offer, he is coming in a gold boat, with a lion in the passenger seat. This is Showtime.