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Online Advertising

Volume of spend

The Gambling Act 2005 removed advertising prohibitions previously in place for many gambling products. It is unsurprising that gambling advertising has proliferated significantly since then, as a growing number of operators have taken advantage of greater freedom to promote gambling to a Great Britain audience.

A study14 estimated that the marketing spend by gambling companies increased by 56% between 2014 and 2017. It has reached £1.5bn. Most advertising activity is focused online because online advertising can be targeted better to those consumers open to advertising. In the jargon of the industry, online marketing can be ‘personalised’ through the use of big data technology and the data sets available from the global technology giants.

Online advertising represents a substantially better return on investment compared with traditional advertising channels, and the operators are investing heavily.

Figures derived from audited accounts of the top publicly listed operators and other available financial data for private and offshore companies indicate the areas where GB facing gambling companies spent the most money on marketing in 2017:

  • Direct online internet marketing costs – £747m, almost half (48%) of total gambling marketing spend
  • Advertising through marketing ‘affiliates’ – websites, tipsters and publications who earn a commission for generating new business for the gambling companies – £301m, nearly one fifth (19%) of total expenditure
  • TV gambling advertising – £234m, just 15% of total gambling marketing spend
  • Social media – £149m, more than tripling over three years, 10% of total gambling marketing spend
  • Sponsorship – £60m, double the amount spent in 2014 (£30m).

80% of all gambling marketing spend is now online. There has been significant debate about the amount of advertising by bookmakers, bingo websites and virtual casinos on television, but these figures shine a light onto the huge amount of money being spent promoting gambling on the internet.

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Last updated: 26 May 2021

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