The Splash Sports Commissioner Playbook

Running a contest on Splash Sports is a great way to engage your audience, grow your following, and build a community around peer-to-peer gaming. Here’s a step-by-step guide to maximize your reach and participation.

How to Promote Your Contest

The key to a successful contest is generating excitement. Here are some best practices:

Announce Early: Post about your contest at least 2 weeks in advance to give your audience time to enter. Make sure to include your custom invite link to your contest on Splash Sports.

Keep in mind that while a 2-week starting schedule is generally recommended, it’s important to consider the event’s timeline. Starting an NFL Survivor contest gives you a few months to generate hype and interest for your contest, while something like a March Madness contest only has a couple of weeks in its window to promote. 

Use Strong CTAs: Encourage sign-ups by making it easy for users to join. Splash Sports is a peer-to-peer platform - lean into it! Sell the experience of competing directly against your followers. This is their chance to interact with you and participate in an event that they’ll be watching anyway, with the added benefit of a potential cash prize and playing against their favorite influencer and their audience. 

Post Across Platforms

Tailor your messaging for X, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms.

X: Use engaging threads to launch your contest, explaining the format, why your followers should play, and highlight the prize structure. X is a great place for friendly trash talk with your community.

Instagram: Use short-form video to create compelling content that entices your community to join. Share your pick strategy so your community is armed with the information they need to compete.

YouTube: Use long-form video to dive into the strategies behind your contest. 

Posting Timeline

To maximize engagement, follow this schedule:

Two Weeks Out: Announce the contest with an engaging post and include the sign-up link.

One Week Out: Share your picks and encourage others to join.

Three Days Before Deadline: Create urgency by posting a reminder.

One Day Before Deadline: Post a “last chance” update.

Game Day: Post about your picks and encourage engagement.

Again, keep in mind that every event's timeline is different, but this is a great timeline to drive engagement in your contest! 

Engaging with Users In-Contest

You’ve done the work of getting your community into the contest, but it doesn’t stop there. Engaging your followers during the contest is a great way to keep everyone engaged and makes it easier to bring them back for the next contest. Keep the conversation going by engaging with your participants, posting results and reactions, and shouting out top performers. A little friendly trash talk never hurt anyone, either! 

Unique Prize Ideas: Beyond the built-in cash prizes on Splash, consider creative ways to reward your contest winners. 

Exclusive Experiences: Offer a once-in-a-lifetime experience such as a meet-up or behind-the-scenes race day experience like Denny Hamlin’s VIP garage pass giveaway can be highly appealing.

Bragging Rights: Feature winners in your next video or post. A shout-out from a popular influencer can be just as valuable as a monetary prize.

Custom Swag: Personalized T-shirts, autographed memorabilia, or exclusive merch tied to your contest theme (e.g., a signed golf flag like RickRunGood gave away for his golf contest).

Interactive Rewards: Give winners a chance to be featured in a live stream, co-host a pick breakdown, or get early access to your next contest.

How Influencers Earn on Splash Sports

Running a contest is a great way to engage with your community, but let's be honest, it's great to earn rewards. When you run a contest on Splash, you'll share the revenue from your contest with us 50/50, plus an additional CPA (if you qualify) for every new user you bring into the contest. Want to learn more? Email vip@splashsports.com to get started.

Final Thoughts

Running a contest on Splash Sports is about more than just the prize—it’s about building a loyal following and creating an engaging experience. Use these strategies to run a contest that people will talk about long after the final whistle!