Billions Will be Spent Advertising US Online Casinos

The shift in American gambling laws towards legalized online poker is expected to give a boost to the US advertising industry, Advertising Age reports.

Advertising and gambling industry analysts say around $4 billion could be spent on marketing US online casinos over the next five years. That is more than US budget of General Motors in 2011.

In 2014 alone, the gross value of the online-gambling advertising is estimated to be $1 billion, exceeding $13 billion in a decade.

Astonishingly, by 2017 the US internet poker business could be spending more dollars on advertising than the whole insurance sector combined.

Gambling industry analyst Simon Holliday informed: “Driving players to their sites is the biggest single cost of these companies.”

Holliday estimates: “It is probable that 25 to 30 percent of company net revenues will be spent on advertising and marketing budgets in the initial years, as there is a land grab.”

Mitch Garber, online gambling head at Caesars Entertainment’s interactive division commented: “Five years ago, the combined spend of all onsite-based gaming companies in online advertising was very small, limited to SEO for attracting visitors to book hotel rooms online and to come to the website.”

Garber continued: “It’s changing dramatically. There’s no question that as an industry we’ll be spending more time and money on interactive advertising.”

According to Garber, television is the most successful medium for player acquisition, however, his company chose not to advertise on TV and billboards.

Most online gamblers are in their mid 20s, therefore online and mobile ads target them the best. It is highly likely that the biggest benefiters of advertising legalized poker in the U Swill be the digital media and agencies.

John Schadler, founder and managing partner at Las Vegas-based agency SKandG analyzed:”There will be a rush at the inception of the online sites to gain market share and notoriety. That requires initial branding efforts and initial media spend at a pretty strong level.”

Schadler concluded: “It becomes an exercise in brand awareness. We’re inventing a category.”