- The Gambling Commission of Great Britain conducted a survey on gambling and advertising.
- 25.9% of currently active bettors reported starting gambling after receiving a free bet promo.
- Electronic direct advertisements tended to be effective at getting gamblers to restart after a break.
LONDON - Survey data from the Gambling Commission of Great Britain has revealed the most successful method of gambling advertising - free bets.
22% of survey respondents reported engaging in gambling after receiving an offer for free wagers with a given gambling provider.
In addition, 26% of currently active bettors reported that free bets were what made them start gambling for the first time.
As one more example of the efficacy of offering free bets, 19% of people who re-started gambling after a break reported that free bets were the reason they began gambling again.
Other methods of advertising were also fairly effective, with normal advertising on TV and prompting 15% of gamblers in the survey sample to gamble, and 13% of gamblers reporting that they were prompted to gamble by internet advertising.
Less successful were direct marketing, sports sponsorships, Facebook posts and advertisements in newspapers, all of which prompted no more than 10% of gamblers to gamble.
The Effect Of Advertising On Gambling Habits
The majority of gamblers reported that advertising for gambling companies had no effect on the amount of gambling they engaged in, with 53% of them noting this.
However, when posts on social media was included in “advertising for gambling companies”, that number dropped to 45%.
Only 35% of bettors said that free bets had no effect on the amount of gambling they did, however - a notable gap.
Intriguingly, the area in which free bets seem to fall a bit short is in prompting gamblers to come back to gambling after taking a break.
The most effective method of doing so instead seems to be direct marketing, with contact made by a gambling company via electronic methods such as text messages or email prompting 20% of lapsed-and-returned gamblers to return to the fold.
However, this type of direct marketing is also one of the least common methods of advertising, at least on the user side.
Only 37% of survey respondents reported seeing advertisements via text message, email or push notification.
These results seem fairly straightforward - gamblers like getting free money, and it’s a good way to get new people on board.
Why Direct Advertising Works
The success of direct advertising at reaching lapsed bettors is striking, but there is a fairly simple explanation.
Direct advertising methods such as email, push notifications and text message are more likely to be aimed at lapsed players than new players.
After all, in order to be sent those notifications, one must have either downloaded a gambling app previously, or perhaps signed up at an online sportsbook, thereby giving the sportsbook your email.
This also accounts for the fact that only 37% of survey respondents saw those advertisements - they could effectively be self-selecting for those who are already gambling in some form.
Still, these results are notable, even if they tend to tell us what we already know: people like free wagers!