US Sportsbook Link Building Case Study (2022–2026)
52 months • 2,778 editorial links • 1,402 unique publishers
|
2,778
Links Placed
|
1,402
Unique Domains
|
53/mo
Avg Delivery
|
5.1x
Organic Traffic
|
35x
Top-3 Keywords
|
Executive summary
Over 52 months (Jan 2022 to May 2026), we placed 2,778 editorial links for a leading US sportsbook on 1,402 unique publishers, about 53 a month. Over the same period, Ahrefs shows the main target, the client’s sportsbook site, growing on every SEO measure:
| Metric (client sportsbook site, Ahrefs) | Start | Latest full year / month | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. monthly organic traffic | 257,700 (2022) | 1,306,700 (2025) | 5.1x |
| Avg. monthly traffic value | $799K (2022) | $3.31M (2025) | 4.1x |
| Keywords ranking top 3 | 747 (Jan 2022) | 26,478 (Jun 2026) | 35x |
| Keywords ranking top 10 | 4,279 (Jan 2022) | 54,209 (Jun 2026) | 12.7x |
| Referring domains | 2,798 (Jan 2022) | 11,295 (Apr 2026) | 4.0x |
The five most-linked sport hubs now hit seasonal peaks 6 to 18 times higher than their best month in the first year. The NFL hub went from 17,800 visits a month to 203,100 in Oct 2024.
The client and starting point
The client is one of the largest US sportsbooks. In January 2022 its sportsbook site was strong on authority but thin in rankings. The brand’s main domain had DR 77, but the sportsbook site ranked in the top 10 for only 4,279 keywords.
- Referring domains (subdomain): 2,798
- Organic traffic: about 213,000 visits a month (Oct–Dec 2021 average), heavily dependent on the NFL season
- Sport hubs: off-season traffic collapsed. The NFL hub fell to 3,400 visits in Jun 2022, and the MLB hub dropped below 100 between seasons.
The campaign went after non-branded “[sport] odds” and “[sport] betting” terms, pointing links at the sport hub pages that rank for them.
The approach
The strategy was steady, sport-led outreach on real publishers, timed to the betting calendar, with descriptive anchors pointing at deep pages.
| Lever | What we did |
|---|---|
| Volume | 2,778 links, 24–71 per month, never a month off |
| Publisher mix | 1,402 unique domains: sports (42%), general (27%), news (22%); only about 5% were betting or gaming sites |
| Authority | Median DR 39; 34% of links from DR 50+ sites; 98% dofollow |
| Targets | 97% to the sportsbook site: NFL (727), homepage (403), NBA (373), MLB (271), NCAAF (204), NCAAB (183), plus NHL, soccer, golf, MMA, tennis |
| Anchors | 20% branded (“[brand] Sportsbook”, “[brand]”), the rest descriptive (“NFL odds”, “MLB odds”, “NFL spreads”, “march madness odds”) |
| Timing | Each sport’s hub was linked ahead of its peak: Super Bowl and NFL in Jan–Feb and Aug–Oct, March Madness in February and March, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup in April and May, MLB in March and April |
| Content | Each placement was a bespoke article (previews, power rankings, betting guides) with the link in the body |
Link velocity
The pace held at roughly 50 to 60 links a month and never stopped. New domains kept coming too: 358 unique publishers in 2022 grew to 1,402 by 2026. A steady pace like this avoids the sudden spikes in new links that can look unnatural.
Results
Traffic follows the sports calendar, peaking each NFL season, but every season’s peak beat the one before: 472K (Nov 2022), 605K (Nov 2023), 1.30M (Oct 2024), 1.96M (Oct 2025). Rankings rose more steadily. Top-10 keywords rose in most quarters, with only brief dips, and top-3 keywords went from 747 to 26,478. On the brand’s main domain, Domain Rating rose from 77 to 82.
Target page results
The sport hubs show the clearest link to the campaign. Each was linked ahead of its season, and each season’s peak climbed. Off-season traffic rose too. The NFL hub’s summer low went from 3,400 visits (Jun 2022) to 35,000 (Jun 2025). The NBA hub’s slowest month went from 2,900 (Sep 2022) to 20,300 (Aug 2025).
Takeaways and caveats
Steady, sport-specific links to deep hub pages worked best. The hubs with the most links grew the most, and the gains held in the off-season.
- Consistency beat bursts. About 160 links a quarter for 17 straight quarters built compounding rankings rather than one-off spikes.
- Relevance over raw DR. The median DR was 39, but 69% of links came from sports and general-audience sites and sat inside on-topic articles.
- Timing matters. Linking each hub ahead of its season matched each year’s higher peaks.
What this does not prove. These are correlations, not controlled tests. The client also grew through brand advertising, launches in newly legal states, and other SEO work. Our 1,402 domains are about 16% of the roughly 8,500 referring domains the subdomain gained.
Data notes
- Traffic and keyword figures are Ahrefs estimates for all countries; the US-only view was not available on this Ahrefs plan.
- From late 2025, Ahrefs’ counts of keywords ranking 11 and lower fall sharply. This case study uses only top-3 and top-10 counts, which were unaffected.
- Link counts come from our internal link sheet (2,778 rows, one undated). Ahrefs data was pulled on 29 Oct 2026; October 2026 is excluded as a partial month.