NASCAR runs on sponsorship. Many businesses want to do it, but few have. Todd Korves, President of Xtreme Bar Bingo, decided to take the plunge with Austin J Hill and Joey Gase Racing.
Q. Tell us about Xtreme Bar Bingo?
A. Xtreme Bar Bingo is a free-to-play bingo in bars and restaurants. Our goal is for a bar owner to turn their slowest night into their busiest night. What makes us different from a typical bingo that’s played in a bar is that we are free to play. There are big prizes that the people who are going to the bars have a chance to win. People could win TVs, Blackstone griddles, gift cards, Yeti coolers, etc. There are different prizes throughout the night that they can win. Our big draw is that we have a jackpot at the end of the night. It’s shared by our network of locations. It starts out at $ 5,000, and then we increase it by $ 1,000 every week until somebody wins it. We’ve been doing this for 8.5 years. We’ve paid out over 2.5 million in cash and prizes.
Q. How did the decision to sponsor a car come about?
A. My family has been involved in racing for my entire life. We’ve been involved in local dirt racing for 30 years. My late brother, grandfather, and uncle all raced. In the early 2000s, when the internet was fresh, my grandfather and uncle launched Trebo.com. They brought a sticker to the NASCAR truck race. They had pit passes and just went up to a truck that had no sponsors on it. They offered to give $500 to place the sticker on the truck. The driver said, “Yeah, absolutely.” The driver actually qualified on the pole that day.
We had been kicking it around, and I had seen another local business on a car. I was like, I want to see my name on a car. I saw a Facebook ad from Leonard Motorsports Marketing offering sponsorship for a local driver. I decided to do it.
Q. Can you tell us about the experience with Leonard Motorsports Marketing?
A. Tim was with us the entire day. The fact that he did that for somebody that’s gonna sponsor a car. I plan on doing it every year moving forward. He was fantastic.
Q. Can you tell us about your experience with Austin J Hill and Joey Gase Racing?
A. Austin Hill’s dad was like, ” Ask me any question you have. So we talked with his family a ton. We got to meet Austin shortly after practice and qualifying.
Joey Gage Racing pretty much gave us unlimited access. We were able to go inside the hauler and meet the drivers. They fed us. It was an unbelievable experience. I would have never, in my wildest dreams, thought I would get to experience it. We got to go down to pit road, take pictures with the cars before the race, and stand on pit road during the national anthem. Once the race started, one of Joey Gase’s pit members asked me to come stand up on the wall and experience the start of the race. We got to stand in the pit box the entire race.
It’s one of those things where I’ve told almost everybody I know who owns a business. If you’re into racing and have some spare marketing money, it’s worth doing. These teams take care of you. I just can’t emphasize how great an experience we had. We’re a 4th-generation company, and my grandpa is the 2nd generation. He’s 82 years old, and I got to experience that with him. He’s big into racing. He hasn’t stopped talking about it since then. So the fact that we got that aspect going with my family was awesome.
