Report
Exploring consumer journeys using gambling promotional offers and incentives
The Gambling Commission’s report on consumer interactions with online promotional offers and incentives.
4 - Consumer exposure to promotional offers
Around 9 in 10 respondents recalled receiving any promotional offer in the last four weeks, with recall of free bets, free spins, and bets with boosted odds being received most often. The majority of offers (57 percent) were received when actively browsing gambling sites, although receipt of offers via email, in-app prompts, and social media reflected the most common ‘passive’ channels in which they were received.
“You get bombarded with them. Every time I log onto my emails I’ll have tonnes of offers from all the different betting sites!”
Female (age 37), Problem Gambling Severity Index score (PGSI) Score: 0
Figure 1: Recall of offers
| Types of offer | NET: Seen (percentage) |
|---|---|
| Any offer | 90% |
| Free bets | 74% |
| Free spins | 72% |
| Bets with boosted odds | 70% |
| Sign-up and welcome offers | 70% |
| Deposit based offers | 62% |
| Cashback rewards | 47% |
| Any other offer you can use online | 47% |
Despite most exposure to offers occurring passively, over a quarter (26 percent) of respondents were actively searching for them online using a search engine, particularly younger audiences (aged 18 to 34 years).
Third-party ‘tipping’ websites and social media gambling influencers are commonly used to guide this more active pursual of promotional offers. Sign-up offers reflected the offer type that consumers were most likely to actively search for using search engines.
“I’ve only been gambling for around 6 months… I tend to only gamble when there’s an offer to use as I’m still learning the ropes. I’d say I use them 70 percent of the time.” Female (age 28), PGSI Score: 3
Figure 2: Offers seen by channel (in the last 4 weeks)
| Type of offer | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channel | NET: Any offer (percentage) | Free bets (percentage) | Free bets (percentage) | Bets with boosted odds (percentage) | Sign-up and welcome offers (percentage) | Deposit based offers (Percentage) | Cashback rewards (Percentage) |
| Whilst browsing or gambling on a company website | 57% | 34% | 33% | 37% | 31% | 34% | 28% |
| General email from a company tailored to you | 50% | 27% | 30% | 24% | 31% | 28% | 31% |
| Personalised email from a company | 46% | 27% | 26% | 24% | 22% | 26% | 27% |
| In-app prompt | 45% | 28% | 27% | 29% | 17% | 22% | 25% |
| On social media | 44% | 23% | 23% | 21% | 34% | 28% | 26% |
| App push notification | 35% | 18% | 17% | 21% | 15% | 17% | 26% |
| Text message | 29% | 13% | 14% | 13% | 13% | 16% | 15% |
| I used a search engine to actively look for offers | 26% | 10% | 10% | 9% | 17% | 13% | 15% |
Summary of findings - Exploring consumer journeys using gambling promotional offers and incentives Next section
Consumer understanding and engagement - Exploring consumer journeys using gambling promotional offers and incentives
Last updated: 24 November 2023
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