Dan Isenberg

 During the spring of ‘22, only a couple months after the Caesars Sportsbook app became legal in New York, I was approached by Assistant Dean of the NYU Real World program with an opportunity to participate in a Caesars Sportsbook-themed grad school course. The idea was that we would present the students with a business challenge for the fall ‘22 semester, and they would work with their course instructors to develop ideas to pitch back to us based on the challenge. And if we liked any of the ideas? They were ours to use, free of charge.

Intrigued by the opportunity, I approached my leadership and HR teams, and both agreed it was a valuable undertaking. Not only would it be a great way to generate new ideas from the 21+ students who were excited about sports betting, but it would be a way for us to tap into local talent who were pursuing careers in sports marketing and media.

From there, I came back to NYU and our internal leadership team with an idea. What if we themed the whole course around the topic of Responsible Gaming? To me, this was one of our most challenging messages to convey in a way that didn’t come off forced or generic. And who better than the next generation of sports bettors to attack the challenge head-on in a way that would resonate with their peers. Everyone loved the idea, so I worked with our legal team and the NYU faculty to develop the business challenge for the students.

As the semester started, I put together a panel of folks on our side to brief the students in on the assignment during the first two weeks of class and answer questions about the app, Responsible Gaming, and how the challenge related to their generation of sports bettors. I also organized a “field trip” to a Rangers game at MSG, where the whole class took over the Caesars Sportsbook suite and were able to see our brand in action with one of our biggest team and arena partnerships. We also used the trip as an opportunity for the class to interact directly with the creative team and discuss some of their preliminary ideas. In addition, I organized a trip for some of the students to visit our office in Jersey City, meet our CMO and some of our other team members, and learn more about the brand and our daily roles.

In the end, the class presented their ideas to us during the last week of class, and they were all very insightful, impressive, and reflective of their generation’s interests in the future of social media and sports culture. It was an incredible experience for me, and I’m looking forward to even more involvement with the NYU Real World program in the future. See pics from the Rangers game below, and the Caesars Entertainment press release about the course HERE.