Mediaboss Marketing

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(From left) Jessica Frahm and Kinyata Gray (CJRW )

Jessica Frahm has been hired as an account manager at CJRW of Little Rock. Frahm will manage the agencys Arkansas Tourism account and most recently worked as marketing and development manager for Arkansas Tourism. Kinyata Gray has joined CJRW as chief people officer. Gray has more than a decade of experience in human resources and employee relations management, most recently serving as human resources director of Northwest Health System in Springdale.

Shayla Crowder (The Communications Group )

Shayla Crowder has been promoted to digital and social marketing director at The Communications Group of Little Rock. Crowder, who joined the marketing and PR firm in 2021 as a digital marketing specialist, will lead the firms digital and social marketing strategy and campaigns for agriculture and public sector clients.

Rick Selig (World Service for the Blind Foundation)

Rick Selig has joined the World Services for the Blind Foundation as director of fundraising and development. Selig has two decades of experience in fundraising and will help the foundation enhance operations, training and opportunities through philanthropy, endowments and events.

Edie Stewart (Goodwill Industries of Arkansas)

Edie Stewart has been named senior vice president and chief mission officer at Goodwill Industries of Arkansas. Stewart, who began her career as an elementary school teacher 30 years ago, will work to grow Goodwills education, training and employment services.

Alison Williams (Excel by Eight)

Alison Williams has been hired as coalitions director at Excel by Eight of Little Rock. Williams is the previous chief of staff for former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and she will now build a coalition of business leaders and help them work together to address the economic impact of insufficient child care.

Jennifer Martinez Belt (Scott Family Amazeum)

Jennifer Martinez Belt has been hired as director of development and communications at the Scott Family Amazeum of Bentonville. Belt will lead a team of eight to focus on development, marketing and communications as the team continues to grow and the Amazeum prepares for future expansions.

Allen Woody is now the host of A New American Town, Visit Bentonvilles podcast. Woody has 17 years of experience on the air, including hosting the afternoon show on iHeartMedias KIX 104 country music station in Fayetteville. He also works as a real estate agent with Limbird Real Estate Group of Rogers.

See more of this week's Movers & Shakers, and submit your own announcement at ArkansasBusiness.com/Movers.

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2 Hired at CJRW (Movers & Shakers) - Arkansas Business Online

The NFL over Draft weekend hosted a three-day event showcasing the talent of current Gen Z content creators through on-site social activations after the league revamped its social media strategy with its NFL Content Creator Network to allow fans to directly engage with Gen Z football fans, according to Julian Cannon of DIGIDAY. The NFL partnered with motivational influencer Zachery Dereniowski, and TikTokers Josh Richards and Scarlet May which included her creating inclusive content that explained the Draft through sign language. Meanwhile, video creator Lisa Nguyen visited her favorite Kansas City restaurants to talk football and food. Cannon writes the goal of the campaign is to connect with Gen Z NFL fans authentically while also leveraging its content creators to gain interest on the NFL Sunday Ticket. NFL CMO Tim Ellis said Gen Z is one of the league's priority target audiences and they are always looking for authentic ways to engage with them to continue growing our NFL fanbase. Ellis went on to say the NFL generally target creators in strategic verticals -- fashion, gaming, wellness and music -- as well as those native to TikTok -- specializing in humor, food, art, animals or endemic to football (DIGIDAY, 5/1).

The rest is here:
NFL looking to build Sunday Ticket interest with Gen-Z through ... - Sports Business Journal

It's time to let go of your egos, marketers, because this is not about you.

Don't miss a MarketingProfs podcast, subscribe to our free newsletter!

That's a common thing to say, for sure, but it's particularly important to keep in mind when getting into B2B influencer marketing and communities. In the latest episode of Marketing Smarts, Demandbase's Justin Levy emphasizes the importance of partnerships over transactionsan exchange of value over demand. Mutually beneficial activities.

"Too many people will look at simply the reach of an influencerthe total number of followers, or the engagement they have, or the fact that they're a keynote speaker, whatever....and all they want to do is pay them," Justin says. "They don't consider what those areas of expertise are for that person, the brands that they align themselves with and why. Therefore, it's not authentic, for the influencer or for the brand."

In the case of communities, he explains, the most important thing you can do is ask people in the community what they want. Don't try to decide for them. Foster trust and well-being by engaging with them, even if it's just a random question that will take people away from their mundane jobs.

Success may not look like what you expect. So often in B2B, relationships are what will pay off in the long run. "You can run a successful program," says Justin, "but have you built authentic and successful relationships with those individuals?"

The bottom line?

Partnering with influencers and building a community is never about youit's about using your platform to connect people.

Listen to the entire show from the link above, or download the mp3 and listen at your convenience. Of course, you can also subscribe to the Marketing Smarts podcast in iTunes or via RSS and never miss an episode.

George B. Thomas: Are you powered up, are you fueled up, are you ready for some better B2B marketing efforts? Today, I'm super excited, as always, because we get a chance to talk to Justin Levy about powering up your B2B marketing efforts with influencer marketing and private communities. We're going to talk about a whole bunch of stuff, what keeps Justin up at night pertaining to B2B marketers and influencer marketing, private communities, what they look like, how we can leverage them, hurdles, success, and words of wisdom along the way so that you can start to leverage the idea of influencer marketing and private communities for your B2B marketing efforts.

Justin Levy is currently the head of social and influencer marketing at Demandbase. In addition to his role, he also is responsible for leading a private community called Revenue Circle that caters to senior executives in sales and marketing roles. Before joining Demandbase, Justin Levy led social marketing for ServiceNow and managed global social media for Citrix. He was also involved in the launch of a social media agency that worked with well-known Fortune 500 brands.

Justin is an accomplished writer and has contributed to several popular publications, such as MarketingProfs, Content Marketing Institute, and Spiceworks. Justin's work has been recognized multiple times and he has been named a top B2B marketing influencer on several occasions. His influencer programs have also been nominated for industry awards. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Justin is also an author and has written a book called Facebook Marketing: Designing Your Next Marketing Campaign.

Guess what? You get to hear from Justin free today on this podcast. Without further ado, let's jump into the good stuff.

I'm super excited because today we get to power you up, and having the power is very important. We're going to talk about influencer marketing. I know what you might be thinking. George, didn't we just talk about influencer marketing with Mike Alton? Yes, but we're going in a bit of a different direction. But if it's something that we're talking about over and over again, you as the marketer might realize maybe I should start thinking about doing this thing in my business. More importantly, we're going to tie this conversation into influencer marketing in private communities. I am super excited because we're going to be talking to Justin Levy.

Justin, how are you doing today?

Justin Levy: I'm doing well. How are you?

George: I'm doing great. I'm doing better now that you're here. Let's get into the good stuff that everybody wants to hear. I always love starting the podcast with this question. I'm actually kind of going to ask it twice. By the way, I've never asked this question twice, but I feel like I want to know both sides of the conversation that we're talking about today.

Pertaining to influencer marketing, what keeps you up at night when you think of B2B marketers and influencer marketing?

Justin: I think what keeps me up at night is brands that don't approach it correctly. The brands that approach in an authentic way and work with influencers that they trust are the ones that are successful. We see too many brands that want to work with influencers that just want them essentially to be a talking head for them and don't want to co-create the content and partner with them.

What keeps me up at night is making sure that every one of our programs don't look like that, that we're partnered with our creators ahead of time, that we are allowing them to be their authentic selves and that they still have the ability to create the types of content that their community enjoys consuming from them.

George: I love the idea of partnering with versus just paying somebody to do. There's a wide chasm of difference there. I love, too, that you brought up this idea of being authentic to the fact that not only your community, the reason you're bringing in the influencer, but their community will actually still vibe with the content that is being created.

Now that I've mentioned the word community, what the heck keeps you up at night when you think about B2B marketers creating private communities?

Justin: With private communities, one of the things that I care about and constantly think about is providing value to our community, Revenue Circle, that we run and that I lead for us. With that community and with other communities that I monitor, analyze, or am part of, you always have to have the community members' trust and their wellbeing in the front of your mind. You have to monitor them and their behaviors and see what they want to make the community theirs. You can't decide for them. Any program that you're running, even any Google Sheet that you may provide for them, has to be done with that in mind.

George: I love that you brought up the words what they want, because sometimes I feel like businesses and marketers build communities for what they need out of it instead of what the community wants from it.

I want to level set. One of the things I love to do here is let's level set, let's everybody be on the same conversation. We might be using the words private community, and somebody might think we're talking about membership websites. We might say private community and somebody else might think we're talking about Facebook. Maybe both. Maybe none.

Justin, when we talk about private communities moving forward, what do you really mean, what does this look like for a B2B business when we say private communities?

Justin: If you think about it in the way that mutual friend of ours Chris Penn terms it, he terms it velvet communities or online velvet communities, the velvet rope. Pertinent to this conversation, and I agree with you, we have social communities, we have customer communities and things of that nature, but private communities in the way that I think about them are the types of private communities you belong to on Slack, Discord, or any of the white label type of communities like Mighty Networks or areas like that.

Usually, they are a gathering place for people around like-minded topics. If you're a marketing ops professional, there's MO Pros, which is meant for marketing ops folks to discuss those types of topics that are pertinent to that role.

George: It's interesting. I do want to go off the beaten path because there are two questions that popped up in my brain with that. When we think about these private communities, is there a tool or tools that you find, because you mentioned Slack and Mighty Networks, is there one that if somebody is listening and they want to dip their toes into this that they might think of? That's question number one. Maybe talk about the tools that they have at their fingertips. Question two is around the idea of paid versus non-paid community. Can you unpack a little bit around both of those topics for me?

Justin: Yes. For networks, I think the two most prevalent and easily top of mind for folks is going to be Slack and Discord. If you're in the B2B industry, you're more than likely on Slack on a daily basis. If you're exploring other communities or you're a creative type focused person, maybe you're in creative circles or you're into certain creative areas personally, you might be in Discord, so that might be a natural place for you to live. We have seen successful B2B style communities in Discord. Joe Pulizzi's The Tilt lives in Discord, and his is probably the most successful I know that's there. There's kind of an endless number of Slack based communities right now.

On the paid versus free, of course there is a need for critical mass to have a paid community. Probably the most successful there is Pavilion, which has three different levelsassociate, executive, and CEOand of course the pricing differs. You also have Peak, which is a browser based community that runs on Mighty Networks, that's a paid community. The vast majority though are going to be free because you want the barrier to entry to be as low as possible.

George: I love that so much. It gives the Marketing Smarts listeners some tools that they can go look at and start to investigate, but also a mindset of when or when not to monetize their community, as well as some great examples that you just gave that they can go look at for what is doing well or something to model.

Joe Pulizzi, by the way, the godfather of content marketing. If you haven't checked out the interview that we did with him, you definitely need to check out that episode. It was absolutely amazing.

Let's tie this all together. We're talking about influencer marketing, we're talking about private communities. Why is it important to power up one's B2B marketing efforts with influencer marketing in conjunction with private communities? How the heck does that all work?

Justin: With influencer marketing, the most powerful piece of that is to build relationships with thought leaders in the space. Now, you should do that across a wide spectrum. You're not just going to build or try to build relationships with some of the top influencers that would be considered macro influencers who have hundreds of thousands of followers and some of the top most influential voices. Folks like Ann Handley, Jay Baer, or some of these individuals that are focused on B2B marketing.

You also need very small niche influencers. Some of those that are likely to go very deep on one topic. Their network and their area of focus might be field marketing, or ABM, or event-led growth, or something of that nature. It's important to form those types of relationships so that when you run a program, it's across all of that. You might run a multilayered program where you need broad awareness and then you need something more tactical.

With private communities, you need to develop a community where you have truly one-to-one relationships with the community manager and the community members, but then you're helping them to form together in a community. For example, we recently had two of our community members go and get together for golf. We never set it up. They found out that they lived within two hours of one another, and they mutually invited each other to their respective golf clubs. I only found out about it because they posted a photo in the community.

If you look at combining the two, influencer and community, one of the things that we do within Revenue Circle is to bring in thought leaders, these influencers, to do virtual events on areas that are important to either the industry or to the community, and we let the community decide that. For example, generative AI, we just did one with Paul Roetzer. Super timely. The community was asking a lot of questions about it ahead of time. Paul and I are friends, so I reached out to him and asked him if he could come and do a 45-minute session for us. Joe Pulizzi is coming in and doing a session for us next week on content marketing, the creator economy, and where people should be focused.

The second layer to that (and this typically costs some money if a brand wants to invest in it) is to actually hire influencers to create unique content within that community. Something that's of value that you can only get from that community. We are working with Jay Bear, and Jay does a question of the week where he poses it, and then in the way that only Jay can, he gives a bottle of tequila away to the best answer as he decides. It drives engagement with the community, it's on something topical around sales and marketing, whatever is in the news currently, and they like that they have this one-to-one relationship with someone that they can typically only pay a couple thousand dollars to see keynote at a conference.

George: I love this. When I heard the give away a bottle, I was like that's fun, that's creative ideas. When you talk about the folks going golfing together, now it's not just this virtual community, it's real world connections. More importantly, what I heard was this ability to be a great connector. Bringing in people that usually you would not have access to, but because you're part of this community, you now have access to them to be able to hear thoughts, implement their ideas, things like that.

It's interesting because the next question that I want to ask is around how to get started with this idea of a private community and influencer marketing. But my brain, as I heard you talking, tweaked a little bit. If you're going to start a private community and bring these people in, I almost think that you will start to create yourself as an influencer to be able to connect with other influencers, to easily bring those relationships to your community. Maybe unpack a little bit of how to get started with influencer marketing in a way that helps you grow private communities, but a side tangent after that could totally be and to grow yourself you might want to think about these things to make your life easier.

Justin: Sure. I'll see if we can do it all in one answer. If you think about influencer marketing and you're just looking to get started in it, maybe you're new in your position or your company is starting to put a focus on it, you may or may not have a budget. Obviously, a budget allows you to do some broader activities and some more creative activities.

A very simple rinse-and-repeat activity you can do is identify a top list of folks that are in your ICP, or in a market maybe that you want to focus on. Most people boo-hoo listicles because it's the top 50 B2B marketers, and they appear on 20 lists because it's always the same folks, but they can be powerful if you take the next steps in them. That's where the really hard work goes into it.

We'll take a list, and we just did this with the 25 Sales Executives to Learn From in 2023. We did very manual research to closely identify those sales executives, as we defined as VPs and above. We did one-to-one outreach to those folks with custom messages, so each one of those emails came directly from me, it wasn't sent through Marketo or anything like that. We had our creative teamor you can use something like Canva if you don't have a creative teamcreate a social card that had their headshot, their name, their company, and all that good stuff, with our logo and 25 Sales Executives to Learn From. They go share that. Hopefully, a good percentage of them shares that online, because now you're bringing awareness back to your company and you're driving them to the blog post where you've announced these people. Great.

Wait one or two weeks and follow back up with them to feature them in an ebook. The way that I do that is I follow up and say, "We want to feature you in an ebook. Can you give me a two-minute reply to this question?" For Demandbase, that question is on a focus area or a theme that we're going after in that quarter and we really want to know people's opinions for that quarter.

Additionally, I use that to promote the membership to Revenue Circle because they fit the criteria that we want, "If you want to join Revenue Circle, this is also what we're about over here." Revenue Circle gains a membership there, we'll get our responses back to the ebook. We'll work on designing the ebook, and then go back out to them with quote cards that they've used and we'll take those quotes and design the ebook. We'll also design one, two, or more blog posts based on those quotes.

Now you've had three, four, five touchpoints with these influencers, the people you're recognizing. That creates a wonderful two-way relationship, both with the person internally that is reaching out, but also as the brand. One of the things that we've seen, one of the byproducts, is nearly immediately when we reach out to these folks, they'll update their LinkedIn profiles to say top 25 so-and-so by Demandbase, or whatnot. And for the one to two weeks after, we'll see that blog post be one of the top five or top ten pages across our entire website, which is hundreds of pages for a company of our size.

One, that's an influencer program, you're building those relationships, things of that nature. Two, you're gaining membership into your community. For us, it's Revenue Circle. I'd say that's kind of number one.

Number two, if you don't have relationships with some of the larger influencers, reach out to them, build those relationships. You might do something like if you want to ask them to come be in the community to do a virtual event or what have you. Do something that you know they care about.

For some of the thought leaders that we've worked with, say Ann and Joe, they have new books out. Buy some copies of the book. Book sales are a big deal to them right now, it helps get their voice more out into the wild and gets these new thoughts from them out there. When we worked with Paul, though Paul has a published book, generative AI is moving so fast that it was probably out of date the week before it was published, but he has an online course and certification program that is constantly updated. I worked with him to provide the members with a discount. Not only was it of value to the community, but if they sign up, it's a value to Paul and his company.

We try to work both of those one-to-one in the ways that we can, besides the other independent programs that we'll do that are focused solely on influencer marketing or solely on the community.

George: Listeners, I hope you had your tablet, your notepad, your crayons, spray paint on the wall if you have to, and I hope you were taking notes, because that's probably the rewind spot that I would tell you to go back and relisten to that. There's a couple of good models in there.

I love the fact as I heard you talking it was add value, add value, add value. Add value to the people that you want to connect with instead of just trying to extract value for yourself out of it. When I heard you talking about the thread that you were kind of sewing between ebook, this, and that, I thought of an episode we did with Andy Crestodina where he talked about content confetti. Your model lines up with on the flip side of building that relationship, you're also building content confetti and you're figuring out multiple ways to use this relationship across the board. Definitely check out that episode, if you haven't.

The thing here is I want to go back to if you're adding value to the people that you're trying to connect with, that's going to allow you to add value to the community. If you add value to the community, over time that's actually going to bring you into the world of being a micro influencer yourself. Now it's like a flywheel. It becomes very much easier to get people like Justin, Joe, Jay, whoever, to say, "I'd love to be on your podcast," or, "I'd love to help you with your private community. I'd love to be on that webinar event," because now it is about human-to-human relationships.

Unfortunately, somehow, some way, people jack it up along the way. So, one of the things that I like to talk about on this podcast is the hurdles or the potholes that they might face. What are some hurdles along the way while B2B marketers are trying to use influencer marketing and build a community that you're like just stop?

Justin: On the influencer side, as I mentioned, I definitely think it's the talking head versus partnership. Too many people will look at simply the reach of an influencer, the total number of followers, or the engagement they have, or the fact that they're a keynote speaker, or whatever those things are that they care about, and all they want to do is pay them. They don't consider what those areas of expertise are for that person, maybe the brands that they align themselves with or why. Therefore, it's not authentic for that influencer or for that brand. You might have a misalignment of values. You might be asking them to create content that is not natural for them. That's mistake number one for a brand when they're working with influencers is not having that co-created value where it benefits both the brand and the influencer.

On the private community side, probably the thing that drives me crazy is brands that want to build this third-party community, it's not their community, I tend to think about it as powering a community. Demandbase powers Revenue Circle, which means at the end of the day we pay all the bills, but it's not a Demandbase community, we're not selling our wares in there, we just utilize our resources to provide value. Where companies get it wrong is they build up this community, they utilize it to build trust, and then they violate that trust by doing something wrong, whether it is selling their wares, whether it's utilizing the list they've built to market towards them, anything of that nature.

The way we see Revenue Circle is it's walled off from Demandbase. With the exception of if Demandbase does a study with a third-party vendor that maybe is really interesting, maybe we come out with a state of advertising report or something of that nature, and those statistics might be helpful to the community, that's one thing. But we're not going to promote that Demandbase came out with this new feature launch within the product. That will never go into the community. Too often I see that with other communities.

George: I'm so glad you brought it up, and the words you used felt aggressive, but they should be aggressive; when you violate their trust. Trust is such a hard thing to gain, but it's such an easy thing to lose. Being an advocate, a champion for how do we continue to build trust through these communities and not erode it over time, that is probably a genius growth strategy in itself to just not violate the trust. I said this earlier in the podcast, what are you trying to get out of it instead of what are trying to give into it for the community. I love that you hit a never-do-that.

Let's dive back into private communities for a second. What are some must-dos? You're focused on building a private community, you must do these one, two, maybe three things that are going to help that grow, help it be more connected, help it be more engaged. Where does your brain go, Justin?

Justin: You have to let the community decide the type of content they want. I'll give a really good example of what happened within our community.

Many communities do question of the day. It helps to drive engagement, it brings a community together, it's something fun to look forward to for everyone. Most communities do it around the topic that they're formed around. If they're an analytics community, maybe it's GA4. If it's around generative AI, maybe it's something that has just come out like ChatGPTwith GPT 4.0. Things like that. That is well and good. That's why you've joined those communities is to learn more about those areas, to get the expertise and insights.

When we launched Revenue Circle focused on B2B sales and marketers in VP and above roles right now, my mind went to we're going to do a question of the day and I'm going to ask more serious questions that these folks may care about like budget, planning, and focus areas for 2023, and stuff like that. There were, for the most part, crickets.

I sat back and one day there was a very strong debate, I guess we could call it, in the analytics for marketers community that Katie Robbert and Chris Penn run about whether pineapple belongs on pizza. For any listener, it belongs on pizza. Don't argue with me. It should go there. I said that's great, let's try this and see what happens. I posted it in Revenue Circle, and it was by far the number one most engaged question that we had asked. It made me step back and think maybe these executives spend their whole day worried about budget, in meetings about planning, and things like that, so maybe they just want some relief if they're going to take a minute out of their day.

From that point forward, every question of the day has been something lighthearted and fun. This week we've done do shoes belong in a house and do you wash your clothes after you take the tag off and before you wear them. What I noticed out of that conversation was almost every guy rips the tag off and wears the clothes immediately, most of the women take the tag off and wash the clothes. These are the most random questions, to the point that I've had community members ask me where the hell I think about these things from.

That drives all of this engagement and fun. People have fun showing pictures of their dogs or their cats, or sharing recipes of their favorite cocktails, things of that nature. The way we got there was letting the community decide and listening, even passively, to what the community's responses were and how they wanted this community to form and be.

Another area that we did this with recently was we decided we wanted to do a weekly wrap up. If you missed anything, here's all of the stuff from the week, especially now as we have so much going on. Almost every community that I'm part of sends an email, so my inbox fills up at the end of the week with emails. I decided I wanted to try to pivot from that. I asked the community for their feedback, "Do you want me to send an email, or would you rather some type of update in the community?" They all said, without a shadow of a doubt, they don't want email. So, I built a structure in a PDF platform, and at the end of the week I build out a PDF and post it. I'll tag certain people in some highlights, I'll pin it to that channel, and that will be the weekly wrap up for our community. They engage with that and they find that helpful because we let them decide on it.

I think that besides some of the other things, like measure all your efforts so you know what to put the gas pedal on moving forward and areas that are, hopefully, pretty straightforward and easy, just let the community decide what they want, and don't try to decide for them.

George: So many good gems and nuggets that people hopefully are listening to and if they have a community, they can start to implement. I love this idea of fun questions. M&Ms versus Skittles, or do you just mix them together and go nuts, things like that. My favorite; peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, what's your take on it? Here's the thing. We have to kind of land this plane. This has been an amazing interview filled with great value for the Marketing Smarts listeners and the MarketingProfs community. I have two more questions that I want to ask. One, I want to know, in your mind, what does influencer and private community success look like? Let's start there.

Justin: With influencer marketing, I think that success looks like the relationships that you build at the end of the day and how authentic those relationships are. You can run a successful program, and that's well and good. But have you built authentic and successful relationships with those individuals?

Everything I doit can be influencer, it can be community, it can be other projects that I get myself involved inI think about them as is this a case study worthy program? Is this the type of program that we nominate as a case study? Will those individuals feel good about it if it's nominated? Say a program that maybe I run with Joe Pulizzi or Ann Handley. Would it be something that they would hold up at Content Marketing World, for a content award, or at MarketingProfs and be proud that their name was associated with that work that we did with them? We've seen that with influencer programs that we've run.

Same with the community. If we built that authentic and trustworthy community to where the folks that we've worked with, the influencers we've worked with, as well as the community are willing to engage with it, both within the community so that engagement rate and growth, recommendation to other individuals, but are they willing to post about it externally without being prompted? I think that's success.

We had multiple members of Revenue Circle post on LinkedIn after events or in response to other questions. They'll post about how valuable they see Revenue Circle. That means more to me, frankly, than if they answer the question of the day today.

George: So good. The last question that I like to ask, because you've been on this journey, you've done influencer marketing, you are an influencer, you have a community that you've been rocking out, we all have these journeys, which means we gain some wisdom along the way. What are some words of wisdom that you would like to impart to the Marketing Smarts B2B marketing audience?

Justin: I think there are probably three. One is something that Chris Brogan imparted on me almost 15 years ago, because we've both been at it for a while now and spent a lot of time together when we ran an agency together. He always told me to be a connector. You mentioned this earlier. To always use your platform and your relationships to connect other people together, and it's never about you.

I get my joy and I feel successful off of being able to utilize my relationships to connect with them others in influencer marketing and community that they may not have unless they go and spend a couple of thousand dollars at Content Marketing World to get connected with folks that are taking the main stage, for example, or connecting in this job market to people that I know are hiring and/or are looking for a job. We had that happen in Revenue Circle recently, a CMO hired someone to be their VP. So, being a connector.

Something I've also learned throughout my career that applies to a lot of things is to always be two steps ahead. One of the areas, and this is more internally that I try to do this, but also externally, is to try to stay two steps ahead of whatever is happening around me. Internally, I use that to try to stay two steps ahead of, let's say, my manager, so that when they ask for something, I've already got it done. Because you don't know the timeframe or reasoning behind why they are asking for it. Say my VP might ask for a report. I want to have that done before he ever thinks he needs it, because he potentially is being asked by my CMO for something. If I can have it to him immediately, he can make his tweak or two and send it to our CMO, that makes him look more prepared and better, and he's leading his team better.

Externally, if you can stay two steps ahead, you're staying two steps ahead of your competition or the other communities in your space, or the people that are trying to work with fellow influencers. Hopefully, you're being more creative and taking what you've learned from other campaigns or other things you've noticed and trying to implement that.

I think the last is to always measure your efforts. You have to measure what you do, and then you have to learn from it. Too often I think in marketing as a whole we just measure everything and say that we're data-driven, and we don't let the data actually drive us.

In influencer marketing, say with a paid program, I measure something called CPE, cost per engagement. It's the only way that I know how to level set all of the folks that I work with, because it provides an equal benchmark between the person that charged an X sum of money and gets X engagements and someone that is maybe charging more or less and gets a certain number of engagements. I shouldn't continue a relationship for the next program if that CPE is different than another, unless there is a very targeted reason.

The same with the community. I mentioned the question of the day. I utilized not only what the community was giving for feedback, but what the engagement numbers told me, and that I continued to put the gas pedal on.

George: Marketing Smarts listeners, did you take lots of notes? I have to ask, what is your one thing, your number one execution opportunity after this podcast episode? Make sure you reach out and let us know in my inbox or on Twitter using the hashtag #MPB2B.

I also have to ask are you a free member of the MarketingProfs community yet? If not, head over to Mprofs.com/mptoday. You won't regret the additional B2B marketing education that you'll be adding to your life.

We'd like it if you could leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast app, but we'd love it if you would share this episode with a coworker or friend. Until we meet in the next episode of the Marketing Smarts Podcast where we talk with Steve Multzer about the three pillars of winning communication, value, passion, and connection, I hope you do just a couple of things. One, reach out and let us know what conversation you'd like to listen in on next. Two, focus on getting 1% better at your craft each and every day. Finally, remember to be a happy, helpful, humble B2B marketing human. We'll see you in the next episode of the Marketing Smarts Podcast.

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Published on April 27, 2023

Link:
B2B Influencer and Community Marketing - MarketingProfs.com

Providence sues social media platforms, alleging they fuel youth 'mental health crisis'

A variety of social media apps on a smartphone. (Videoblocks)

The city of Providence is suing the parent companies of Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms, alleging they are harming the mental health of children.

The suit was filed Friday in federal court in Rhode Island. It accuses social media companies of negligence and being a public nuisance.

The city claims social media companies like Meta, TikTok, and Google are putting profits over kids' health and that several national organizations say there's a national emergency surrounding youth mental health.

The suit alleges Meta and other companies designed their platforms to be addictive to maximize screen time and boost advertising revenue.

Todays youth are experiencing a mental health crisis fueled by the Defendant Social Media Companies, who are ruthlessly seeking to maximize profits at any cost and with callous disregard for the harm that their platforms cause to minors mental and behavioral health, the city alleges in the introduction of the lawsuit.

NBC 10's Molly Levine reports that Providence is suing big tech over the alleged harmful effects of social media on children.

The suit seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages.

"These social media companies have direct impacts on the social emotional well-being of our residents. Like any other company, they should be responsible in marketing and developing products and held accountable for the impacts of their products, which is why Providence, similar to other cities and towns across the country, is filing suit," said Patricia Socarras, Providence director of communications.

NBC 10 News spoke with a pediatrician who says regardless of the outcome, she is glad the issue is being talked about.

It is best parents be well aware of what their children social media use is, what platforms they're on, what they're seeing, and how long they're spending on it," said Dr. Elizabeth Lange.

Other cities and towns across the country are filing similar suits, with several national organizations adding that there's a national emergency surrounding youth mental health.

"Part of that was brought on by the pandemic and shelter in place we all had to do," Lange said. "Children are being exposed to all sorts of images on social media that many times parents aren't even aware of."

The lead lawyers on for the city are former state attorneys general Patrick Lynch and Jeffrey Pine.

The lawsuit names as defendants: Meta Platforms Inc.; Facebook Holdings LLC; Facebook Operations LLC; Meta Payments Inc.; Meta Platforms Technologies LLC; Instagram LLC; Siculus Inc.; Snap Inc.; TikTok Inc.; TikTok Ltd.; TikTok LLC; ByteDance Inc.; ByteDance Ltd.; Alphabet Inc.; XXVI Holdings Inc.; Google LLC; and YouTube LLC.

NBC 10 News has sought responses from the tech firms named in the suit.

Google said protecting children has always been a priority.

"Protecting kids across our platforms has always been core to our work. In collaboration with child development specialists, we have built age-appropriate experiences for kids and families on YouTube, and provide parents with robust controls. The allegations in these complaints are simply not true," said Jos Castaeda, a Google spokesperson.

Meta points to the tools it's developed to support teens and their families.

We want to reassure every parent that we have their interests at heart in the work were doing to provide teens with safe, supportive experiences online. Weve developed more than 30 tools to support teens and their families, including tools that allow parents to decide when, and for how long, their teens use Instagram, age verification technology, automatically setting accounts belonging to those under 16 to private when they join Instagram, and sending notifications encouraging teens to take regular breaks. Weve invested in technology that finds and removes content related to suicide, self-injury or eating disorders before anyone reports it to us. These are complex issues, but we will continue working with parents, experts and regulators such as the state attorneys general to develop new tools, features and policies that meet the needs of teens and their families," said Meta Head of Safety Antigone Davis.

Snap said it can't discuss the lawsuit, but it said Snapchat operates in a different way.

"Snapchat was designed differently from other social media platforms because nothing is more important to us than the well-being of our community. Our app opens directly to a camera rather than a feed of content that encourages passive scrolling and is primarily used to help real friends communicate. We aren't an app that encourages perfection or popularity, and we vet all content before it can reach a large audience, which helps protect against the promotion and discovery of potentially harmful material. While we will always have more work to do, we feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping friends feel connected, informed, happy, and prepared as they face the many challenges of adolescence," Snap said.

NBC 10's Molly Levine contributed to this report.

Go here to see the original:
Providence sues social media platforms, alleging they fuel youth 'mental health crisis' - WJAR

The Local newsletter is your free, daily guide to life in Colorado. For locals, by locals. Sign up today!

On a Saturday night this past winter, I found myself enjoying a craft beer and bathing in the cerulean warmth of high-def TVs at Spankys Roadhouse, a University neighborhood haunt. The flat-screens were showing NBA games, an NHL matchup, and a college football conference championship. My drinking buddy struck up a conversation with the bartender and asked if the barkeep had any skin in the contest we were watching. The kid shook his head and then said, Nah. I didnt put money on any of these games, but I do a lot of late-night betting onlineusually on Korean baseball.

Until five years ago, no one outside of a Las Vegas casino couldve uttered that statementunless they were illegally placing bets with a bookie or through offshore sportsbooks. But when the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018, the ruling allowed states beyond Nevada to determinewhether and how to legalize and regulate sports betting. After Colorado voters approved Proposition DD in November 2019, the first wagers were placed in May 2020.

5280 May 2023

Since then, more than $10.7 billion of betsor handle, in industry parlancehave been made from within our rectangular borders, a gaudy statistic that not only illustrates the untaboo-ing of gambling on sports but also places Colorado in the top 10 U.S. sports betting markets. Considering our smallish population compared with other powerhouses such as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, its reasonable to ask what has made the local market so successfuland whether thats a good thing. First, a relatively low tax rate of 10 percent is a huge reason why so many sportsbooks come to Colorado, says Ian St. Clair, an analyst for playcolorado.com, which covers the states online gambling industry. Second, Colorado has a massive betting catalog, meaning people can bet on everything under the sun.

Dan Hartman, director of the Colorado Division of Gaming, agrees that the robust catalogwhich allows bettors to put money on in-state college sports, even though some other states disallow ithas made for good business, but he also believes the decision to introduce mobile sports betting was a fortuitous break. We launched two months into the pandemic, Hartman explains. There were no major sports being played, and no one was going to casinos. Being able to bet on, say, Croatian table tennis from an iPhone positioned us well.

Since the end of stay-at-home orders, in-person betting at retail sportsbooks in Black Hawk, Central City, Cripple Creek, and at tribal casinos in southwestern Colorado has been available, but roughly 98 percent of all sports bets in Colorado are still made online. This should come as no surprise to those whove seen former Broncos quarterback Peyton Mannings commercials for Caesars Sportsbook, which is just one of the 23 online betting shops currently tapping into Centennial Staters irrational hopes and disposable incomes.

Although the $10 billion handle over the past three years suggests Coloradans have generally welcomed sports betting into their ever-growing pantheon of formerly illegal vices, there are those who see the easy access to and vigorous marketing of online gambling as a statewide addiction problem in the making. The approach in Colorado was to launch as quickly as possible and build a competitive market, says Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. The issue is that sports betting is an addictive product, and Colorado didnt put in infrastructure to combat the possibilities of harm.

In 2022, the Colorado Division of Gaming and the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado began to remedy that situation by helping engineer a bill that would fund responsible gambling programs in the state. House Bill 22-1402, which was signed into law last June, allows state and local governments, and some nonprofits, to apply for grant funding to support projectslike social marketing campaigns and research studiesthat would address problem gambling. Considering $130,000 was all that was originally allocated for problem gambling when sports betting began, says Peggy Brown, founder and president of the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado, the more than $2.5 million that 1402 delivered is an important step.

The fact that our bartender divulged that he often drinks well into the night after his shift and then consults his gambling apps to see whats livemeaning real-time games across the globe that can be bet on while theyre happeningmade me loath to download any sportsbook app. His enthusiasm for putting what I imagined was good tip money on bowling didnt help. But I ultimately signed up with DraftKings, and what Ive learned since thenall of it downloaded in the following pagescan serve as an introduction to the hows, whys, and should-I-reallys of sports betting for every Centennial Stater.

Getting set up online is easy. Figuring out what to do next is not.

Determining which app youll like will often come down to personal preferences about the different user interfaces and what lines (or odds) the bookmakers are offering. Initially, though, look for the best offers for signing uplike new user bonuses, boosted odds, or protected bets (sometimes called free bets)and register with a few sites to compare them. Read the fine print on how those offers work, paying attention to whether theyre attached to a required deposit and/or if bonus money is redeemable. If youre in no huge hurry to get started, says playcolorado.coms St. Clair, wait for the beginning of the next NFL or NBA season. Thats when the bookmakers give their best sign-up deals.

Obviously, if youre placing an in-person sports bet at a Colorado casino, theres no need for Big Brother to determine your location on a map. However, if youre hoping to place bets online, Colorado sportsbook apps must run a player location check, which means when you register for an account (and log in each subsequent time), youll be asked to allow access to your location. Not every state allows sports betting, so your device (and therefore you) must be physically inside Colorado to place a wager.

Every app, from DraftKings to PointsBet to BetMGM, requires a minimum depositusually no more than $5to get started. To do this, youll have to transfer money to the app from, well, wherever you hold assets. The easiest way to do this is to link your bank account to the app. Typically, you wont even need your routing or account numbers; youll select your bank from a drop-down menu and use your bank login information directly on the app. In Colorado, it is also legal to use credit cards to supply your bankroll, although there are some that prohibit payments to gaming activities. PayPal, Venmo, and gift cards also work on some apps. To withdraw your winnings, you can use PayPal, Venmo, or the like to receive funds; most sportsbooks take up to 14 days to send you a check.

This is, in theory, the fun part. However, if youre new to sports betting, the sheer number of options for what you can bet on and what types of wagers you can place can be paralyzing. You can find How To Bet guides on most apps and websites, but the best way to learn is through experience. My advice: Use some of the freebies you get to figure things out and get comfortable with different bets, like futures and props, St. Clair says. This allows you to test it out with limited risk and investment.

Not so long ago, the idea of betting on sports was scandalous. What happened?

I was born during the 1978-79 basketball season, when the Boston College point-shaving hullabaloo happened, and Im just old enough to remember the disgraceful end of Pete Roses illustrious baseball career. I was an editor at this magazine in 2007 when NBA referee Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty to betting on games in which he was officiating and making calls that affected the spread. The national indignation exhibited in the face of these wrongdoings was fervent.

As a sports fan, Ive always wanted to believe the athletic pursuits I watch are pure and unaffected by external forces, despite that evidenceand many other instancesto the contrary. And until very recently, most Americans and a majority of professional and amateur sports leagues seemed to agree with me, wanting nothing to do with betting on sports, illegal or otherwise. In fact, during a 2012 New Jersey caselegal proceedings that ultimately overturned PASPANFL commissioner Roger Goodell testified that its a very strongly held view in the NFL, it has been for decades, that the threat that gambling could occur in the NFL or fixing of games or that any outcome could be influenced by the outside could be very damaging to the NFL.

So, when I logged on to my DraftKings account for the first time in January 2023, I experienced a familiar feeling: the same one I had walking into a Denver marijuana dispensary for the first time in 2012, which is to say I wasnt sure this should be legal. Eleven years later, I still vacillate on the liberation of cannabis, and as I hit place bet on the College Football Playoff National Championship game, I wondered how well all feel about legalized sports betting, and the road that led us here, a decade from now.

Nevada legalizes gambling, including wagering on sports.

The first sportsbook opens inside a Las Vegas casino.

Although fantasy football has been around since the 1960s, the growth of the internet leads to a massive expansion in fantasy leagues.

President George H.W. Bush signs PASPA, which outlaws sports gambling in states that did not already have laws allowing it, notably Nevada.

President George W. Bush signs theUnlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, a response to the proliferation of online poker and casino games. The act, however, makes an exception for fantasy sports, declaring them skill-based and not games of chance. The daily fantasy industry, which essentially allows betting on individual players but not on the outcomes of games, is born.

In March, New Jersey files its first federal lawsuit to overturn PASPA, arguing the law violates the 10th Amendments protection against federal anti-commandeering laws.

In July, FanDuel is founded as a daily fantasy sports provider.

DraftKings launches.

Estimates suggest more than 40 million Americans play fantasy sports.

In May, the Supreme Court overturns PASPA.

Shortly thereafter, FanDuel and DraftKings, the two largest fantasy league operators, announce their intent to enter the sports betting market in states that legalize the practice.

In July, the NBA becomes the first major U.S. sports league to have an official relationship with a sportsbook operator, MGM Resorts.

Delaware becomes the first state to legalize sports betting after PASPA falls.

In May, the first sports wagers are placed in Colorado, which is the 19th state to give sports betting the green light.

In September, the University of Colorado Boulder signs a first-in-NCAA-history sponsorship deal with PointsBet sportsbook, which is headquartered in Denver.

The NFL signs partnerships with Caesars Entertainment, DraftKings, and FanDuel

More than 50 million Americans are projected to wager more than $16 billion on Super Bowl LVII.

Sports betting has a language all its own. Weve got the important translations for squares** below.

*A veteran professional bettor whose proven successes can influence sportsbooks to adjust their odds (see also: wise guys and handicappers)

**A novice or recreational gambler

The betting lines set by bookmakers; American odds are based on favorites and underdogs. Favorites are denoted by a minus symbol (-) attached to a number. The higher that number is, the better the chance the favorite will win. Underdogs are denoted by a plus symbol (+) attached to a number. The higher the number, the larger the underdog. American odds use a baseline value of $100. For favorites, gamblers are always risking their money to win $100; with underdogs, a bettor risks $100 to win the number set in the line. Keep in mind that you dont always have to wager $100; if you bet more or less, the wager is scaled up or down accordingly.

Example: Lets say the lowly CSU Rams (+110) play Coach Primes CU Buffs (-110) and you place a moneyline bet on the underdog to winand they actually dothat means your wager of $100 won you $110 (reminder: you get to keep your original wager). If you place a straight-up bet on the Buffs to winand they dothen your wager of $110 brought home $100 (plus, you get your $110 back).

A straight-up bet in which a sports gambler tries to predict the outright winner

Example: If the inept Denver Broncos (-110) were playing the equally pitiful Las Vegas Raiders (+110) at Empower Field, a bettor might take the underdog Raiders to win. If the Raiders win by any margin, a bettor who put $100 on the silver and black would win $110.

Odds posted on a game that are designed to level the playing field. Favorites are listed with a negative (-6.5) point spread, while the underdog is given a head start with positive (+6.5) odds.

Example: If the Denver Nuggets (-6.5) are favored to beat the Golden State Warriors (+6.5) and a bettor picks Denver to cover the spread, then Nikola Jokic & Co. must beat Stephen Curry and the rest of the defending champions by at least seven points for the bettor to have a winning ticket.

How many total goals/points/runs will be scored by both teams in a game.

Example: If the Stanley Cup Champion Avs are playing the Detroit Red Wings and the game total is set at 6.5, wagerers must decide if they think the teams will combine to score over or under seven goals.

A single bet that consists of two or more sides, or legs. Each side must win to deliver a winning ticket.Because these bets are riskier, they have higher payouts.

Example: You could bet $100 that the bad news Rockies (+150) will beat the favored Padres (-185) and another $100 that the underdog Arizona Diamondbacks (+130) will fall to the LA Dodgers (-155). If you wager on moneyline bets, youll earn $215 or so if both hit. If, however, you parlay them, your odds jump to +311meaning, your initial $200 bet could turn into $823. But if one leg fails, the whole bet fails.

Special wagerstypically on the occurrence or nonoccurrence during a game of an event that may not directly affect the matchs final outcomethat are offered on most sporting events (but not on collegiate sports in the state of Colorado).

Example: A bettor could put money on, say, a specific Rapids player to score the first goal of a match.

Everyone knows you can put money on the NBA and the NFL, but Colorados betting catalog is vast. There are dozens of leagueshere at home and across the globeto wager on, if you can find sportsbooks that are accepting those bets. (Hint: Many of them do.) If 5280 were a bookmaker, we might specialize in theuhless mainstream sports. Depending on the time of year,* your bet slips could include wagers on these pursuits.

*Event and season dates change from year to year; these are approximations

5280 spoke with DraftKings director of race and sportsbook operations about what differentiates Colorados sports betting landscape, tips for novice gamblers, and how sports betting can appeal to more than just sports nuts.

5280: How does someone whos been in Las Vegas since 1979 view gambling?Johnny Avello: Its entertainment. In Vegas, its always been about table games and keno and slotsand the vibe. In 2018, I went to DraftKings, which offers the easiest way to be entertained: online in approved states.

DraftKings has been operating in the Centennial State since day one of sports betting herewhy?Mobile betting is great for Coloradans. You dont have to battle the snow or I-70 to get to the casinos. But more than that, Colorado is a unique state in that it has big-name sports teams and a great sports culture. People like to bet on the home teams, and because Colorado allows betting on college teams, there are a lot of teams to follow. Plus, the state of Colorado has taken an aggressive approach by having a large catalog, so it doesnt miss out on handle.

Did Coloradans bet on the Avalanche this past season?Oh, yeah. The Avs werent a long shot, but they were bet heavily in Colorado. That was a loss for us in the state of Colorado, but in New York they were betting on the Rangers and Islanders, so it all balances out.

With sports betting only being legal for three years, were all pretty much newbies. Got any advice?Its OK to download the app and just peruse. It doesnt mean you should be betting right away. Take time to understand what it all means. Do some research. If I were a newbie, Id stick with the basics. Take Team A versus Team B and either do a moneyline bet, a bet on the spread, or a total-points-scored wager. Those are the three core bets, and they are easy to learn and understand. Something thats also easy and fun is a futures bet, where you bet on which team is going to win, say, the World Series before the season even begins.

Where do you see sports betting expanding as the industry matures?Sports betting doesnt have to just be about big-time sports. It can also be about cornhole and table tennis. But I think it can expand beyond that. The Oscars are a perfect example. You cant do this in Colorado yet, but since 2019, DraftKings has been taking bets on the Academy Awards in certain states. You know what weve noticed? More females sign up to play.

Which sports do Coloradans like to bet on most? For the 2021-22 fiscal year, the Colorado Division of Gaming reported a handle of roughly $4.8 billion. If youre thinking that, like, $4.7 billion of that was plunked down on the NFL (as in, the Broncos definitely wont cover the spread), well, youd be wrong. With $1,197,704,193 in wagers, the NBA trounced the No Fun League by $429,091,748 in bets. What other sports did Centennial Staters put money on? We break it down.

One sports fans hot take on pocket gambling.

Russ, if youre reading this, thank you. Or perhaps Coach Hackett is more deserving of my gratitude. If I were a linemaker (Im not), Id say the odds on which man was my rainmaker were close to even all season long: Russell Wilson at -110 and Nathaniel Hackett at +110.

Why? Because rule number one among recreational, small-time sports gamblers like me is to bet against your team, which was easy with Russ reading defenses and Hackett calling plays in the red zone. That way, the theory goes, youll always wineither in your bank account or in the final box score, which may as well be your heart. I would take a Denver Broncos win any day, in any circumstance, but barring that, a little pad in my wallet softens the blow.

This past season, the Broncos were one of the worst-performing teams in the NFL (five wins, 12 losses), but they were particularly dreadful when Vegas favored them to win: When expected to beat their opponent, the Broncos only won three times, compared with five losses, and only onceonce!did they cover the spread. Against the spread, the Broncos were 1-6-1 (or one success, six failures, and one push, essentially a tie where wagers are returned).

Thats a lot of gambling gobbledygook, but heres something more straightforward: When the Broncos were predicted to win this year, I bet on them to lose. And because of this rudimentary metric, my personal shopping line item in our monthly household budget ballooned quite favorably. New Nikes, an Arcteryx hard shell, and Christmas presents were all paid for from winnings during the woeful stretch between October 2 and December 11, when the Broncos bested their opponent only once.

Such an easy-to-follow pattern is rare in sports gamblingfor me, anyway. I typically place two or three bets per week, and except for the windfall from Russ & Co., Ive been winning and losing the same $200 for about a year. My wagers are smallusually between $5 and $50and only sometimes based on more than gut instinct and whatever Ive read in the 24-hour news cycle while scrolling sports Twitter alongside everyone else.

Before betting was legalized in Colorado, which brought the BetMGM sportsbook to my pocket, I was an irregular bettor. On trips to Lake Tahoe to visit family and friends, Id sometimes swing through Reno, Nevada, and blow a small amount set aside for the occasion, usually on NFL futures (e.g., wagering in, say, September on who might win the Super Bowl), college football bowl games, or March Madness. Ive always been a sports fan, and my trips to the Grand Sierra resort and casino were born of that persuasion. Watching sports is fun, and correctly predicting their outcomes is even more so.

When I began betting online in Colorado, it was much the same: Posting up with friends at the Dark Horse in Boulder on an NFL Sunday with wings and pitchers of Banquet is a good time, even if the Broncos are finding a new way to lose to the anemic Jets. Its even better if Ive somehow correctly predicted Zach Wilsons triumph over hapless Denver and can offer to buy the next round.

The thing is, though, its never been about making money. Beer money, sure; monthly bills, no. I do have well-intentioned, self-imposed rules in an attempt to not lose money. No live betting. Never take a running back prop; never pick the away team in NBA basketball; never be seduced by a college football spread. Also: Dont bet on baseball.

As you can imagine, each maxim is often the result of more than a few straight losses. But because I am the arbiter of my own rules, I tend to move the goal posts with abandon. My only constant is this: I always bet against what I want to happen. Money cant buy happiness, but in my experience, I tend to break even. Maren Horjus

Disordered gambling is a diagnosable addiction and a known danger to public healtha threat Colorado has long ignored. That may be changing, but theres a lot of catching up to do.

Dan Trolaro knows the hallmarks of problem gambling, because he exhibited all of them. The 47-year-old vice president of prevention for United Kingdombased Epic Risk Management, which helps organizationssuch as the NCAA, pro sports leagues, the armed services, and insurance companiesreduce the effects of gambling-related harm, lied, didnt pay his bills, got restless when he wasnt gambling, performed poorly at work, talked constantly about odds, had to bet more and more money to get a dopamine rush, and couldnt stop wagering even when the consequences were dire. My story is extreme, says Trolaro, whos working with the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado on its program to spread awareness of problem gambling on college campuses. Not everyone ends up embezzling money to gamble and gets sent to prison for four years like I did, but that doesnt mean it cant happen. Thats why Im a big believer in telling my story, helping people see the warning signs, and prevention.

A Greeley man* explains, in his own words, how turning 21 quickly turned into a massive financial deficit.

Growing up in Broomfield, I liked sports as much as the next guy. I even played a little football in high school. Back then, it wasnt like I was watching games all day long, every day. But then online sports betting became legal here, and I turned 21 and downloaded DraftKings. Then it was like I had to bet on every game. The apps are so convenient. Too convenient, really.

NBA, MLB, UFCit didnt matter what was on during the day. Then, at night, Id be jonesing for more betting. If I stopped, my brain chemicals would get low; it was like doing a drug all day and all night. I was betting on stuff I wouldnt normally care about. Id look up whatever was live now and put money on things like Korean baseball. My true degeneracy really came through when I started betting on Russian pingpong. The amount of money Ive lost on that is staggeringin the thousands.

I work at the front desk of a hotel making less than $30,000 a year. Recently, its not been uncommon for me to lose half of my paycheck to sports betting. Everyone in my life says Ive gotta quit. But its hard. Winning is exciting, and losing gives you a rush, too, because now you have to gamble more to get back to financial normalcy, which Ive slowly realized is not true or possible. My friends know its bad, but my mom is really the only person who knows how bad it is. She has the means to bail me out, but she refuses to, which I get.

Not too long ago, I got a paycheck and then gambled 90 percent of it away within two days. Now, Im three months behind on rent, my credit card is maxed out, I have no car insurance. Im in a huge financial hole. Ive been wanting to quit for months, but its so hard.

In January, I called the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado and asked to fill out a self-exclusion form, essentially paperwork given to casinos so they wont let a person gamble. I was under the impression that this form would mean I wouldnt be able to gamble online, but thats not the case. Right now, it only works for brick-and-mortar casinos. Those arent my problem. Its the apps. And the promotions. I like FanDuels free bets and deposit matchesI just cant stay away from them. Honestly, its difficult to get away from sports betting because every sporting event on television has commercials for it. Kinda makes me sick to see Kevin Hart, who probably doesnt even gamble, make money while people like me only lose money. They cant do ads like that for cigarettes because theyre addictive. Well, this is addictive, too. As told to LBK

*Name withheld

Sports betting today isnt like it used to be. Before 2018, you had to hop a flight to Vegas, and you probably used actual cash. In other words, there were some limiting factors then, says John Bundrick, a certified gambling counselor who worked in Colorado from 2016 until early 2023. Now, the big phenomena are that money is digital and instantly depositable, and betting online means you can do it all day from your phone with no breaks. Gambling, Bundrick says, has always been called the hidden addiction, because its difficult to see that someone is losing money. The difference in treating disordered gambling now in Colorado, he says, reiterating that 98 percent of sports betting in the state is done online, and treating it before May 2020its two different worlds. You simply cant get away from it.

A controversial partnership born in 2020 between the University of Colorado Boulder and PointsBet blurred the boundaries between college-age audiences and sports betting. The deal dissolved in March, but not before some lessons were learned.

If you walked through Balch Fieldhouse and into the bleachers at Folsom Field during the past two football seasons, you saw them: PointsBet advertisements. They were on the scoreboard, on the sidelines, on the Jumbotron.

The marketing bonanza began almost three years ago when CU Boulder signed a much-talked-about, five-year, $1.6 million deal with PointsBet, a sportsbook launched in Australia in 2017 that opened its U.S. headquarters in Denver in September 2021. From day one, the deal was under near-constant investigation, by everyone from the National Council on Problem Gambling to CUs own Intercollegiate Athletics Committee.

Local media was all over it, too, as were the New York Times and Sports Illustrated, among other national outlets. The criticism was multipronged, but it had one clear through line: College-age kids are a vulnerable demographic, and experts said that neither PointsBet (which declined to comment for this article) nor CU Boulder took appropriate measures to protect them from the downsides of gambling. Young male adolescents are more at risk, says certified gambling counselor Bundrick. Theyre competitive, impulsive, and with the popularity of gaming, they have been exposed at a young age to loot boxes, where theres an element of chance and intermittent reinforcement. Plus, they have a digital relationship to money. In other words, some college-age malesand probably females, toomay have a predisposition to gambling addiction, especially if the user interface feels a lot like the video games theyre used to and the tangibility of money is nonexistent. As such, experts say college campuses are no place for sports betting sponsorships.

On March 28, roughly 24 hours before CU Boulder and PointsBet released a joint statement ending their partnership, the American Gaming Association (AGA), a national trade group for the U.S. casino industry, agreed with said experts and released a new marketing code that prohibits its members from entering into the kind of deal CU and PointsBet pioneered. PointsBet is not a member of the AGA, and multiple sources said the AGA code changewhich garnered national attentionhad no bearing on the talks between the sportsbook and the university. Regardless, amid all the chatter, the two entities decided the agreement had run its courseand would not provide details explaining why. CU Boulder, for its part, says it has certainly learned some things over the past three years.

Although several universities across the country ultimately followed in CU Boulders footsteps and signed lucrative deals with sportsbooks, the Buffs broke the trail. When youre the first into the breach, says CU Boulders chief spokesperson, Steve Hurlbert, theres added scrutiny. The media attention did not end; it was ceaseless. That was unique. Still, Hurlbert says the deal showed innovative thinking that the university is proud of. We have no regrets, he says. It was a novel, ambitious, and creative partnership.

Critics panned the deal for providing no funding to address problem gambling on campus and said a referral feethe school received $30 for every person who signed up using a CU promo codeactually encouraged gambling on campus. The money from the fee was initially meant to address campuswide gambling harms and DEI initiatives, but the funds were insufficient. The paltry $1,830 was instead used for in-stadium problem gambling awareness signs. Certainly our intent was broader, Hurlbert says, and we wish the funding had been there to do more.

The $1.6 million that CU received from PointsBet went to facilities and other resources for student-athletes. In that sense, Hurlbert says, the deal was a normal and beneficial marketing sponsorship. In other ways, the partnership was singular. Built into the contract were ancillary perks that Hurlbert says were super popular with student-athletes. PointsBet was at our job fair last year, Hurlbert says. There were also internships and career development opportunities with PointsBet that focused on analytics and computer science.

Theres at least one other reasonbeyond the hope of winningto feel good about sports betting.

Whether you bet on the Broncos to win or against the Avs in the Stanley Cup Finals, the dough you handed to the house wasnt a complete loss. In the Centennial State, the majority of tax funds from sports betting go to the Colorado Water Plan, a project born in 2015 to address the states myriad water challenges. What most people dont know, says Lauren Ris, deputy director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB), which manages the plans framework, is that the Colorado Water Plan never had a permanent funding stream until sports betting was legalized.

That means in a water-constrained state thats been experiencing a megadrought since 2000, a plan meant to support statewide water projects that would provide multiple benefits to the states H2O users didnt have a steady source of income to provide the grants it was built to help deliver. As you can imagine, Ris says, its exciting to have the sports betting tax dollars.

Colorados 10 percent tax on sports betting is among the lowest in the countrya calculated but criticized move that has lured a legion of sportsbooks to the statebut with the passing of House Bill 22-1402 last summer, the Colorado Water Plan is expected to see an increased purse. The law, which took effect on January 1, reduced tax write-offs for sportsbooks, and, according to the Governors Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSB), should garner the state $24 million for fiscal year 2022-23, up from $12.4 million the previous year. The OSB estimates the number will rise to $25 million next year.

The CWCB has already awarded grants, partially funded by early sports betting tax dollars, to support a training program on conservation- and efficiency-oriented irrigation for farmers in eastern Colorado and a research project into the potential water conservation benefits of linking urban food policies and programs with rural communities. Water projects cost money just like anything else, Ris says. This has been a really big deal for us.

$24 Million: Amount in taxes on sports betting thats expected to be allocated to the state in 2022-23, much of which will go to the Colorado Water Plan

The Sky Ute SportsBook app is one of a kind. Heres why.

In a market full of big names like Caesars, FanDuel, and BetMGM, Sky Ute SportsBook is nearly anonymous. Its three-year-old mobile app isnt as polished as SISportsbooks and doesnt offer the kickbacks and free play youll find with DraftKings. But thats exactly what makes it stand out, in what some might consider a charming way. Well, that and the fact that its the only tribe-owned sportsbook app in the state.

Operated by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe since 1993, Sky Ute Casino Resort has long had slots, craps, blackjack, roulette, and even bingo, but when Colorado legalized sports betting in November 2019, Sky Ute had a mobile sportsbook ready to go within seven months. In fact, the casinos app started taking wagers 10 months before Sky Utes retail sports lounge, located near Ignacio in south-central Colorado, even opened. With COVID-19, says David Oelschlaeger, the casinos director of interactive gaming, we were uncertain when or if a retail sportsbook was going to be possible, so we knew the app was the thing. This was our opportunity to think outside traditional norms and take care of our customer base.

It wasnt easy, though. Oelschlaeger says the technology necessary for an app far exceeded his training, which he jokes ended in the Etch A Sketch era. The geolocation setup, the financial part with banks, the regulations we had to comply with, and the platform itself, plus the day-to-day selection of lines, he says, it was a lot. It was, however, worth it. Ever since then, Oelschlaeger says, Sky Ute has been hiring new employees and expanding its offerings. But, he says, the reason Coloradans might want to consider placing bets with Sky Ute is because its not one of the big guys. Were the mom and pop shop amongst the Walmarts, he says. To us, you arent just some name or number on a giant spreadsheet.

Odds are that these areas represent the future of sports betting in Colorado.

Determining whether the next drive will end in a touchdown or if a team will stage a come-from-behind victory while games are being played is what in-game wagering is all about. Live betting means sportsbooks can get further engagement during a game, says playcolorado.coms St. Clair, instead of just relying on traditional bets that happen before games. Live betting is trending up, and its available for a variety of sports, even fast-paced ones like table tennis, but industry insiders say the NBA, NFL, pro soccer, tennis, and MLB offer the most predictability. Predictability is relative, but St. Clair suggests that MLB is great for live betting. The biggest reason why baseball is the best is the speed of the game, though the new pitch clock may change that, St. Clair says. Still, compared with basketball and hockey, you have a little more time to place your bet. One [of the] most popular is the result of the next at-bat. St. Clair also offers this tip: Given the delay on the broadcast, bettors should place their next at-bat bets during commercial breaks. The sportsbooks constantly update their odds from pitch to pitch, and they have a massive advantage given that delay. You could be eight seconds behind a pitch, and the batter may have already flied out as youre locking in your bet. During commercials, the books no longer have that edge.

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3 Years Into Colorado's Sports Betting Experiment - 5280 - 5280 | The Denver Magazine