Chalkline Powers USA Today Gaming with Freeplay Fan Engagement

Media giant Gannett strengthens sports product with Chalkline’s freeplay games as it engages sports bettors across mobile-first properties 

Chalkline has partnered with USA Today Sports Media Group to create Free-To-Play sports betting games that will be distributed and drive audience engagement across the USA Today network’s 173 million monthly digital users.

The media giant will leverage Chalkline’s infrastructure to offer Free-to-Play games that engage and educate sports bettors across USA Today, Gannett’s 260+ local properties and 70+ sports vertical sites.

Hosted at gaming.usatoday.com, USA Today now has the ability to offer its audiences daily sports contests that feature live odds, player props and unique games across all major sports, leagues and teams.

Gannett plans to create contests around national sports events, plus unique locally focused contests across Gannett’s local news and vertical properties for fans that are passionate about their favorite sports teams.

Chalkline’s games have been integrated into Gannett’s proprietary user database, providing a seamless single user sign-on across USA Today’s network of sites.

This allows for seamless authentication as players sign-in, test their sports knowledge via prediction contests involving daily sporting events and win prizes.

“We have 60 million passionate sports fans visiting our properties each month that love our  national, local and vertical sports content,” said Chris Pirrone, VP and General Manager of USA Today Sports Media Group.

“Providing these fans with contests that test their knowledge predicting scoring and player props across the daily slate of pro and college games is a great next step to deeper fan engagement.

“Chalkline games that include live odds, games across every sport, and daily prizes will give our fans more reason to get into the game,” he added.

Daniel Kustelski, CEO of Chalkline, said: “Fan engagement is at the heart of everything we do, and this partnership focuses on the passion that their audience has for sports.

“We look forward to building great games across all sports for the USA Today audience.”