Underdog is giving its brand a face before football season, and he is wearing a yellow tracksuit.
The sports prediction market and fantasy sports company launched "Unleash Your Dog" as a national campaign and long-term brand platform.
It is the first work from Curiosity, the independent agency that Underdog named its creative and media agency of record in June.
Paul Walter Hauser plays "The Dog," a gold-chained, smooth-talking character who guides fans through making picks on Underdog.
"Paul was perfect because he embodies the playful nature of Underdog," Devin Bellamy, senior director of integrated marketing at Underdog, said in a press release.
Director Jody Hill helms six spots, with the campaign spanning TV, CTV, YouTube, social, audio, OOH, and programmatic advertising.
The campaign gives Underdog a recurring character just as the brand enters a high-value football season.
Underdog Gives Its Picks Product a Personality
"The Dog" acts as a human guide for Underdog’s products.
Hauser plays the character with a knowingly exaggerated confidence, helping his owner make picks while giving the brand a distinct comedic voice.
Hill’s direction keeps the work rooted in comedy, which gives Hauser room to make "The Dog" feel like a character audiences could see again.
In addition to the hero films, Underdog also launched "Own the Wait."
The short-form series is designed to run during commercial breaks while fans check their live picks.
The timing gives the character a multi-layered job as "The Dog" can return across sports, creators, social content, and experiential activations.
Curiosity is also repeating a creative structure it used for MIKE AND IKE six weeks earlier.
Its "We Got’chew" campaign gave the candy brand two recurring characters, with four hero films directed by Kenan Thompson.
Underdog gives the advertising agency another category where one character can become the mechanic for a bigger brand platform.
Prediction Markets Hand 'The Dog' a Large Audience
Underdog enters a market where fantasy sports and prediction products are reaching more sports fans.
FSGA research fielded in January 2026 found that 27% of U.S. adults, about 72 million people, played fantasy sports or bet on sports in the past year.
Prediction markets are also gaining familiarity among younger audiences.
A February 2026 survey from Paradigm, an investor in prediction market Kalshi, found that 36% of registered voters in the U.S. had used prediction markets.
This includes 19% who browsed market odds without putting money down.
Usage was highest among voters ages 18 to 34, where 38% reported some form of participation, against 3% of those 65 and older.
The company has 11 million registered accounts and also reported $466 million in net revenue for the 12 months ended June 2026, up 21% year over year.
IG Group agreed in July to acquire Underdog for up to $1.3 billion, so "The Dog" debuts while the company changes hands.
The U.K. group expects Underdog to more than double its U.S. revenue, so the character arrives with an audience the buyer has already priced.
Curiosity has one football season to make "The Dog" familiar before a new owner starts judging the advertising spend.
This data provides three takeaways for brands in the same industry:
- Sports participation creates habits. Brands should use recurring characters to keep products familiar across seasons.
- Prediction markets are gaining attention. Teams should use recognizable characters to make new products easier to understand.
- Fantasy and prediction create ongoing engagement. Marketers should tie content to live fan behavior to stay relevant.
"The Dog" can become a recognizable guide across both fantasy sports and prediction markets as the company expands its product offering.
Our Take: Is 'Own the Wait' Enough to Anchor the Platform?
"Own the Wait" may be the smartest part of the campaign because it gives "The Dog" a specific media job.
The series is designed for commercial breaks, when fans actively check their live picks.
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We think that it can anchor the platform, but only if the writing changes as fast as the games do.
But if every interruption delivers the same joke, the brand asset could become background noise during games.
If Curiosity keeps rewriting the situations around "The Dog," Underdog gets a repeatable segment inside the games themselves.
Need a recurring character that can hold your brand together across a full season?
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