Director, Performance Creative Strategy – Casino

Location: Leeds, England, United Kingdom; London, England, United Kingdom; Manchester, England, United Kingdom About Us Fanatics is building a leading global digital sports platform. We ignite the passions of global sports fans and maximize the presence and reach for our hundreds of sports partners globally by offering products and services across Fanatics Commerce, Fanatics Collectibles, and Fanatics Betting & Gaming, allowing sports fans to Buy, Collect, and Bet. Through the Fanatics platform, sports fans can buy licensed fan gear, jerseys, lifestyle and streetwear products, headwear, and hardgoods; collect physical and digital trading cards, sports memorabilia, and other digital assets; and bet as the company builds its Sportsbook and iGaming platform. Fanatics has an established database of over 100 million global sports fans; a global partner network with approximately 900 sports properties, including major national and international professional sports leagues, players associations, teams, colleges, college conferences and retail partners, 2,500 athletes and celebrities, and 200 exclusive athletes; and over 2,000 retail locations, including its Lids retail stores. Our more than 22,000 employees are committed to relentlessly enhancing the fan experience and delighting sports fans globally. Primary Focus: As Director, Performance Creative Strategy at Fanatics Betting & Gaming (FBG), you are responsible for defining the strategic priorities, audience opportunities and learning agenda that shape Fanatics Casino performance creative. You’ll uncover the hooks, angles and player insights most likely to resonate, translate them into clear, inspiring briefs for the internal creative team, and track performance to understand what works and why. This role is the strategic link between player insight, creative development and performance results, ensuring the right problems are being solved and that learnings continuously inform future briefs across acquisition, engagement and retention. This position reports directly to the Senior Director, Performance Creative & GTM, and manages one Associate, Performance Creative. Key Responsibilities: Own the Casino performance creative strategy across paid social, app networks, CTV, affiliates and lifecycle, aligned with business priorities, audience insight and brand positioning. Build and evolve the Casino creative variation framework, mapping hooks, angles, reasons to believe, formats and offers to audience and funnel stage. Translate business objectives and player insight into clear, inspiring briefs for the internal creative agency, including scripts, hook variations and iteration briefs on winning concepts. Own the Casino testing agenda, defining what we want to learn, how we measure a win, and which tests run each month. Drive a high-velocity testing program across hooks, openers, formats, offers and creators, continuously improving hit rate and speed to learning. Partner with Media and Analytics to track creative performance, identify winners and fatigue early, and apply learnings to the next round of briefs. Write concise test readouts and maintain a living library of what works for Casino players. Identify and define the performance territories, audience tensions and messaging opportunities to support creative briefs Embed performance requirements into brand and full-funnel campaign briefs from the outset (in collaboration with integrated marketing and media), ensuring channel, audience, format and measurement needs are clear before creative development begins. Partner with the Casino Creative Studio to translate those requirements into effective creative, with the Studio retaining ownership of creative direction and execution. Advise Brand and agency partners on hooks, edits, cutdowns, aspect ratios and platform-native versions, so big campaign moments carry through to always-on performance and lifecycle. Source player insight, competitor ad libraries, creator content and platform trends to identify new angles and white space. Lead performance strategy/creative insight sessions and contribute a strong POV to creative brainstorms, working closely with the Casino Creative Studio. Present performance learnings and recommendations in GTM forums and monthly reviews, turning results into a clear story for senior leadership. Lead, mentor and develop an Associate, building their craft in briefing, analysis and testing. How This Role Connects Across the Team: Partners with the internal producer, who owns production timelines and delivery, to keep briefs, priorities and the content calendar aligned. Partners with the Casino Creative Studio and Integrated Marketing to shape high-quality output, providing direction and feedback while respecting executional ownership. Partners with Brand and Integrated Marketing to embed performance best practice into campaigns, ensuring work is both distinctive and built to perform across the funnel. Partners with Media, Analytics and CRM to define success measures, read results and feed learnings back into strategy. Works with Legal, Compliance and Creative Operations to keep all creative compliant and aligned with Responsible Gaming standards. Partner with the affiliates teams to produce UGC briefs aligned to channel best practice, adapting content that’s optimised for performance (via creative briefs) Skills & Qualifications: 8+ years of experience in creative strategy, performance creative or brand strategy, including 3+ years leading creative strategy for a fast-growing D2C brand, mobile app, gaming or casino business. Portfolio demonstrating hook-led, insight-driven creative and the performance results behind it. Deep knowledge of platform-native creative across Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Snap and app networks, including UGC and creator formats. Proven track record building and running creative testing programs at volume. Strong analytical skills, with the ability to read performance data, size results and translate them into clear recommendations. Excellent storytelling and writing skills, from a 6-second hook to a campaign narrative to an executive readout. Experience influencing brand and integrated campaigns across matrixed teams without direct ownership. Experience managing and developing direct reports. Willingness to travel occasionally for team meetings and Fanatics events. Depending on the role, your interview and onboarding experience may include in-person components, such as onsite interviews or Launching into Better: LIVE—a multi-day cultural immersion in New York City for full-time, non-seasonal hires. These sessions are designed to build connection and bring our culture to life, though specific travel and participation requirements will be confirmed based on your role and location. Your recruiter will provide clear guidance at each stage of the process. For information about our benefits, please visit https://benefitsatfanatics.com/ #li-JM3 By submitting your application, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our Candidate Privacy Policy. Fanatics will never ask candidates for money, banking information, or other sensitive personal information as part of the interview process. If you receive a suspicious message claiming to be from Fanatics recruiting, please do not respond and report it here .