What started out as a pretty typical promotion with the Detroit Pistons soon turned into a huge success for the Wingstop restaurant chain and its shareholders. Last fall, Wingstop began to offer its customers 5 free wings when the Pistons won. The people of Detroit didn’t get to cash in on this promotion for 2 months as the Pistons went on a historic 28 game losing streak.

The company has seen its stock rise more than 40% since the Oct. 30 start of that Pistons losing streak, and it reported in November a 26.4% rise in quarterly revenue, to $117.1 million, as well as a 46% jump in net income, to $19.5 million. 

“We have an elevated amount of ad fund investment to deploy, growing consistent with our system sales growth of roughly 30%,” said Michael Skipworth, Wingstop president and CEO, during a recent earnings call. “That’s allowing us to show up in more premium placements like live sports. We’ve shown up in the NFL in a big way. We’re showing up in the NBA right now.”

According to Front Office Sports