Major advertising revenues being generated by U.S. online gambling
News on 23 Dec 2013
News on 23 Dec 2013
With legal online gambling now a fact of life in New Jersey, the region – and neighbouring states – is being bombarded with a diversity of advertising and promotional activity, the publication NJ.com reports.
Extensive use is being made of all media channels as the majors get into the swing of online gambling and offer their products to New Jersey residents and visitors.
Thus far official numbers indicate that almost 100,000 gambling accounts have been opened across the market, and a further substantial number of punters could be introduced to the online gambling experience by the advertising and PR dollars now being spent so freely.
TV commercials and radio spots abound, banner ads are plastered on news websites, billboards line major highways, and marketing crews are in shopping malls and ferry terminals proclaiming the news that online gambling is legal in New Jersey, and punters should try it out.
“They are using every angle — every traditional media angle they can,” Donald Hoover, an expert on the casino industry and a professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University told NJ.com. “They are spending a lot of money advertising.”
Cable TV is a favoured media channel being used in New Jersey but some advertisers have made expensive media buys on broadcast channels in Philadelphia and New York as well, NJ.com reports.
More is on the way; Caesars Entertainment, which has several online gambling websites operated by two of its four Atlantic City casinos, plans to launch its campaign in January, company spokesman Seth Palansky revealed.
NJ.com makes the point that the big adspend is intended not only to establish brands and attract gamblers, but to educate and publicise a new way to gamble.
It gives as an example a Betfair TV spot, the main thrust of which is an explanation on how online gambling works – especially the mobile version.
“Play Betfair online casino anywhere,” a spokesman explains in the Betfair ad., which shows two men spinning a roulette wheel on a tablet computer while standing on the edge of a basketball court, the New York skyline visible behind them. “Like, right here, on a basketball court.”
For the media and advertising agencies it’s a bonanza; to be really effective, advertising needs to be repetitious and sustained, preferably through an integrated diversity of media channels.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie told a news conference last week that 2014 will be an “absolutely pivotal” year. “We need to make continued progress in Atlantic City or we’re going to need to start considering alternatives,” he asserted.
