Gambling is an integral part of the global entertainment market. That is why its development is linked inherently to the development of other sub-sectors of the entertainment market, as well as business areas related to providing services to consumers.
Understanding these mutual dependencies, specialized associations and the media periodically conduct extensive inter-industry studies to identify the forms and types of mutual influence and assess the effectiveness of development costs in one industry for other related businesses.
For instance, iGaming Business recently published a systematic study on the factors that most impact the development of betting in the United States of America. In fact, the US market example is not an exception. However, it is always a good thing to use new information, draw analogies, and generate business analytic reports based on the most up-to-date data.
According to iGaming Business, for the betting activity to be branched enough and to enable it to fully cover its target audience, a strong marketing department and marketing strategy should come first.
What does this mean for adjacent areas? First of all, it means new revenues from any type of advertising: on television and radio, in the media, or any other advertising, depending on the regulations of a particular state.
Last year, top American betting companies spent billions on their recognition, presence, popularization, etc. While the final results of the previous advertising year have not yet been summed up, BIA Advisory Services suggests that in 2022, up to USD 1.8 billion was spent on online gambling advertising only, and most of it was spent on betting advertising.
In terms of losses of US market leaders, we see that, for example, FanDuel (which accounts for 40% of the US market according to the latest financial report from parent company Flutter Entertainment) spent more than USD 1 billion last year on marketing and advertising.
However, companies do not spend money only on advertising their services. Branding costs are equally important. For instance, according to Pathmatics, in January 2022 alone, five companies making up almost 90% of the betting advertising market in the United States, namely FanDuel, DraftKings, Wynn, MGM, and Caesars, together spent USD 25.6 million on online streaming, media, and social advertising!
And all this is happening with constantly rising social responsibility standards of companies, and some states even introduce additional advertising regulations.
For example, this year, the American Gaming Association (AGA) published a set of voluntary standards and a responsible marketing code for sports betting. And last year, prominent gambling operators abandoned the controversial term “risk-free” in favour of more precise wording, recognizing that gambling cannot be completely risk-free.
It is also worth noting that although in 2022, bookmakers spent a huge amount of money on customer acquisition campaigns because new markets were opening, today, more such companies are investing in loyalty programs to retain customers, growing roots in these markets. It also results in attracting third-party businesses and their development through orders from bookmakers.
The American case once again proves that gambling does not exist in a vacuum or separately from other businesses. Gambling gives a powerful impetus to more than 18 related areas, according to the Ukrainian Gambling Council.