Top Brands Spending on YouTube This Week (Oct 12-18, 2026)
194 of FanDuel's 199 paid YouTube videos this week ran on one podcast network. Here's the full board: 1,724 paid sponsorships across 172 brands.
I expected the sportsbook spend to be spread across hundreds of creators. Most of it runs through one network.
We analyzed 1,724 paid YouTube sponsorships from Oct 12-18 across the 172 brands we track in the Scout sponsor index. Here is the full board.
TLDR
- 36 channels from the Locked On sports podcast network carried 505 of the week's 1,724 paid videos (29%).
- FanDuel and Kalshi ran 393 paid videos, 23% of every paid video on the board.
- Kalshi +20% (+32 videos), the biggest absolute gain. It now sits 5 videos behind FanDuel.
- Indeed -81% (-80 videos) and BetterHelp -61% (-75), the biggest drops.
Last week's calls, checked
- DraftKings' -56% in issue #1 read as an operator-specific pullback. It's back +73% this week, 11 to 19.
- Helix Sleep and Factor, both #1 breakouts, are out of the top 20: 9 and 21 paid videos.
- #1 called sports betting a reshuffle. #2 shows most of that volume runs on one network: last week, 128 of PrizePicks' 175 ran on Locked On.
Biggest movers week over week
The top of the board barely moved. The drops tell this week's story.
Up this week:
| Brand | This wk | Prev wk | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kalshi | 194 | 162 | +32 | +20% |
| ButcherBox | 67 | 51 | +16 | +31% |
| FanDuel | 199 | 188 | +11 | +6% |
| DraftKings* | 19 | 11 | +8 | +73% |
| Saily* | 20 | 13 | +7 | +54% |
Down this week:
| Brand | This wk | Prev wk | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indeed* | 19 | 99 | -80 | -81% |
| BetterHelp | 48 | 123 | -75 | -61% |
| PrizePicks | 120 | 175 | -55 | -31% |
| Cash App* | 20 | 40 | -20 | -50% |
| ChatGPT* | 12 | 30 | -18 | -60% |
*Outside the top 20; included here for the movement.
Indeed, BetterHelp and PrizePicks lost 210 paid videos between them, and most of that ties back to one podcast network (more below).
The leaderboard (top 20 by paid videos, Oct 12-18)
Each linked brand opens its full creator list, the actual channels running paid reads for it.
| # | Brand | This wk | Prev wk* | Δ | Last 30d | All-time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FanDuel | 199 | 188 | +11 | 683 | 2,408 |
| 2 | Kalshi | 194 | 162 | +32 | 602 | 1,512 |
| 3 | PrizePicks | 120 | 175 | -55 | 489 | 2,179 |
| 4 | Quince | 69 | 64 | +5 | 295 | 3,904 |
| 5 | ButcherBox | 67 | 51 | +16 | 205 | 693 |
| 6 | BetterHelp | 48 | 123 | -75 | 359 | 2,989 |
| 7 | Zocdoc | 37 | 35 | +2 | 133 | 1,104 |
| 8 | SeatGeek | 30 | 30 | 0 | 134 | 731 |
| 9 | Patreon | 29 | 31 | -2 | 133 | 2,606 |
| 10 | AG1 | 28 | 38 | -10 | 119 | 1,103 |
| 11 | Shopify | 28 | 21 | +7 | 106 | 1,665 |
| 12 | DeleteMe | 28 | 21 | +7 | 99 | 1,189 |
| 13 | Incogni | 26 | 26 | 0 | 138 | 1,056 |
| 14 | Aura | 25 | 32 | -7 | 191 | 1,368 |
| 15 | Raycon | 24 | 27 | -3 | 63 | 532 |
| 16 | Anker | 24 | 27 | -3 | 116 | 460 |
| 17 | NordVPN | 24 | 25 | -1 | 127 | 1,474 |
| 18 | Mint Mobile | 23 | 25 | -2 | 94 | 11,322 |
| 19 | Claude | 23 | 25 | -2 | 130 | 919 |
| 20 | Hostinger | 22 | 15 | +7 | 69 | 769 |
*Prev wk recounted from the same Oct 26 pull. Method in the FAQ.
Old money vs new money
How much of each brand's all-time paid YouTube volume landed in the last 30 days. Kalshi: 602 of 1,512 (40%), the newest money on the board. Mint Mobile: 94 of 11,322 (0.8%).
What jumped out
One podcast network sits under the top of the board. 194 of FanDuel's 199 paid videos this week ran on channels in the Locked On sports podcast network (a network of team-level sports podcasts), along with 154 of Kalshi's 194 and 70 of PrizePicks' 120. Across every brand we track, 36 Locked On channels carried 505 of the week's 1,724 paid videos. The sports-betting lead on this board is mostly one network's ad inventory, not hundreds of separate creator deals.
The big drops look like a flight ending, not brands leaving YouTube. Last week, 96 of Indeed's 99 paid videos ran on Locked On channels. This week that fell to 16. BetterHelp's Locked On count went from 74 to 12, and PrizePicks' from 128 to 70. We can see the videos, not the contracts, so read this as timing rather than intent.
Kalshi is the fastest-growing big spender. 194 paid videos this week, 5 behind FanDuel, and 40% of everything it has ever run on YouTube landed in the last 30 days. Prediction markets, already taking share from sportsbooks, are buying the same sports audience the sportsbooks built. Deeper look at the money-adjacent categories: brands sponsoring personal-finance YouTubers in 2026.
Outside sports, privacy tools held three top-15 spots: DeleteMe (28), Incogni (26) and Aura (25). Mint Mobile (11,322) and Quince (3,904) still have the deepest all-time numbers on the board. Case studies: Mint Mobile YouTube sponsorships, Quince's YouTube playbook.
Want the channels behind any brand on this board? Look up who a brand sponsors, free.
Who's buying more this week
For creators and talent managers, the brands worth pitching are the ones adding paid videos outside the Locked On network, where independent channels can land a deal. This week: Shopify (+7), DeleteMe (+7), Hostinger (+7) and Quince (+5) all grew with zero videos on Locked On. Kalshi (+32) and FanDuel (+11) also grew, but their adds are almost entirely network inventory. ButcherBox (+16) looks like growth too, but 15 of its 16 new paid videos ran on Locked On.
Creator or talent manager?
These are the brands buying creator sponsorships right now. Claim your free Scout creator profile so they can find you, or read the two-minute walkthrough first. New to this? How to get sponsored on YouTube. Managing a roster? List it in the Scout Talent Network. No fees, no cut of your deals.
Related reads
- Babblin issue #1: Oct 6-12, 2026: last week's board.
- Brands sponsoring personal-finance YouTubers in 2026: sportsbooks, prediction markets, trading apps and budgeting tools.
- How to sponsor YouTubers: the playbook: if you're a brand looking to build what the top of this leaderboard runs every week.
- YouTube sponsorship rates in 2026: what the deals on this board actually cost, by creator size.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Babblin?
- A weekly report on paid YouTube creator sponsorships. We scan a watchlist of brands across the Scout index and rank paid-sponsorship volume for the most recent 7-day window. Each issue includes a top-20 leaderboard, the biggest week-over-week movers, and a few reads on what the data shows.
- How is 'paid' defined?
- A video is counted as paid when Scout classifies the brand mention as Dedicated (the full video is the sponsorship), Integrated (a scripted segment inside a longer video), or Affiliate (a creator link with a trackable code or URL). Organic mentions, where the creator talks about the brand without a deal, are excluded.
- Which brands are in the watchlist?
- Issue #2 covers 172 brands across sportsbooks, prediction markets, fantasy, VPNs and privacy tools, DTC health, supplements, meal kits, finance apps, creator tools, AI tools, software, mattresses, telecoms, and more. 116 of them ran at least one paid video this week. It's smaller than issue #1's 264 because we switched to exact brand-name matching, which removes false matches. If a brand you track isn't on the list, reply to this post and we'll add it.
- Why don't last week's numbers match issue #1?
- Prev wk here is Oct 5-11, recounted from the same pull as this week. Scout keeps classifying videos for a few weeks after they publish, so past weeks get revised each issue. This issue also counts distinct videos per brand with exact brand-name matching, which is stricter than issue #1, so some brands' totals are lower. This week was pulled on Oct 26, eight days after it closed, so late videos should add little from here.
- What is Scout?
- Scout is Babbl Labs' creator-marketing platform. It indexes 100,000+ YouTube channels, their audiences, and the brands that sponsor them, so brand teams can find the right creators to work with. The Babblin leaderboard runs on the same classification system that powers Scout.
