Winning Over Gamblers: The Playbook for Sportsbook Marketing

As of 2024, gambling through online sportsbooks is legal in 28 U.S. states this which includes betting on college and professional sports. With the sudden increase in legalization, media channels have seen a boom in paid and sponsored advertisements for many of the top sportsbooks. The average viewer of a sporting event in America won’t go through one commercial break without seeing a gambling advertisement.

Most of the ads featured during commercial breaks have offers for money back, for more bets, if your first bets don’t hit. These ads are a way for books to target sports fans who may or may not already gamble by giving the illusion of easy money. Some of the ads even have a QR embedded in the video that take the user directly to the offer page on the book.

Prop bets are another angle that major sportsbooks are using to offer first-time betters a chance to make extra money on their bets, or get their money back. These ads are mainly seen in between social media posts on sports themed pages. It only takes one click to take you from the social media app to the book with the promo code for the offer already installed.

These incentive campaigns are a way for sportsbooks to lure in potential customers and keep them spending money on bets. This is only the start of sports gambling advertisements across media channels. Time will show the evolution of these strategies to get more Americans betting on sports.