The Community Play of the Day campaign is driven by a simple but powerful idea: transform sports betting from an individual action into a shared, community-powered experience. As bettors increasingly look for validation, conversation, and collective insight, FanDuel recognized an opportunity to meet users where they already gather—Reddit—and turn that energy into an owned, branded engagement engine. By enabling fans to collaboratively build a Same Game Parlay (SGP) and rewarding the most influential contributors, the campaign strengthens connection, encourages participation, and elevates FanDuel’s visibility within organic digital spaces.
The specific goals of the initiative focus on four strategic pillars. First, deepen customer engagement by increasing daily interactions and discussions within the FanDuel Reddit community. Second, drive acquisition and retention by offering value-based incentives that encourage continued betting behavior and repeat platform visits. Third, elevate brand visibility by showcasing the community-built SGP prominently on the FanDuel app homepage, reinforcing FanDuel’s role in facilitating collaborative betting moments. Finally, build a stronger sense of community by positioning Reddit as a trusted, entertaining destination for FanDuel players to share insights, debate picks, and collectively shape the final product.
Early pilots in 2025, timed around marquee moments like the NBA Playoffs and MLB season, generated strong engagement, validating the concept and yielding insights to refine execution. Building on this momentum, the initiative fully launched and scaled quickly, driving participation and energy late in the year. Ongoing expansion and projected 2026 performance position Community Play of the Day as a durable, high-impact engagement strategy.
Bringing the Community Play of the Day campaign to life required a coordinated plan that blended customer insight, platform-native engagement, and cross-functional support across Digital Engagement, and Marketing operations. Our goal was not simply to launch another promotion, but to design a participatory experience that felt organic to Reddit’s culture while driving measurable sportsbook behavior on FanDuel.
Plan of Action & Execution
We began by identifying Reddit as the ideal environment for collaborative betting—an ecosystem where users already compare picks, trade insights, and rally around shared wins and losses. From there, we built a weekly flow that encouraged simple, low-friction participation. Users submitted picks tied to a designated game each week, and community upvotes determined the four selections that formed the final Same Game Parlay.
Once the selections were finalized, the Digital Engagement team partnered with our trading and sportsbook teams to create the official SGP, which was then featured prominently in the FanDuel app homepage carousel. This was a critical differentiator: for the first time, a community-built parlay influenced by Reddit users was elevated to a top-level placement in the app—bridging organic conversation with in-app visibility. We rewarded each winning contributor with $25 in Bonus Bets, reinforcing participation and creating a consistent incentive loop.
Key Features
Challenges & How We Overcame Them
One key challenge was balancing community freedom with the need to maintain responsible, realistic parlay combinations. User submissions varied widely, and some picks weren’t eligible for SGP construction. We resolved this by publishing simple, clear guidelines that set expectations while preserving creativity. Another challenge was ensuring timely data flow and KPI tracking. Coordinating with the Sportsbook Operations team, we implemented a repeatable process using asana to track bets, handle, and wager size, creating a performance feedback loop that informed future optimizations.
A final challenge was ensuring the program felt authentic—not like traditional advertising. We overcame this by empowering moderators, leaning into Reddit’s tone, and prioritizing humor, transparency, and two-way dialogue. This approach-built trust and led to strong participation throughout the duration of the campaign.
What Makes This Work Unique
Community Play of the Day stands apart because it transforms passive audiences into active co-creators. It blends the excitement of same-game parlays with the social electricity of Reddit, turning user-driven conversation into a measurable business driver. Rather than pushing a product, we built a collaborative experience that allows the community to shape the product themselves—a model that can redefine how sportsbook brands engage with fans in digital spaces.
The Community Play of the Day campaign successfully delivered against all core objectives—engagement, acquisition, retention, brand visibility, and community building—demonstrating clear proof of concept and strong momentum heading into full-year execution.
From an engagement perspective, the campaign generated consistent weekly participation, with users actively submitting picks, debating outcomes, and driving a healthy amount of upvotes and comments each week. This validated Reddit as a high-value channel for sustained, community-driven interaction. The collaborative structure not only increased daily activity within the FanDuel subreddit but also strengthened its credibility as an entertaining and trusted space for sports betters.
Visibility was another key win. Featuring the community-built SGP on the FanDuel app homepage created a meaningful bridge between organic Reddit conversation and sportsbook behavior, elevating fan contributions to a prominent product placement.
We consider the campaign a success because it converted community passion into meaningful brand and business impact, delivered scalable outcomes, and established a repeatable model for sustained growth. Beyond performance, it reinforced the power of co-creation—demonstrating that engaging the community as active participants, rather than passive audiences, builds deeper loyalty, strengthens brand trust, and creates experiences that resonate well beyond a single campaign.
