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A daily podcast delving into the biggest stories of the day throughout the sports betting and igaming sector.
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Research from the Betting and Gaming Council suggests that UK licensed operators are slashing their advertising spend amid a difficult macroeconomic backdrop. The BGC says these cuts will have a much wider and detrimental impact on not only the gambling sector but also the marketing, sports and media industries. So what does the BGC's research tell us and what does it tell us about operator confidence? Welcome back to iGaming Daily, this episode is brought to you by OptiMove, the creator of positionless marketing and the number one player engagement solution for iGaming and sports betting operators. Learn how OptiMove's positionless marketing is changing how iGaming teams operate. Discover how operators using OptiMove's positionless marketing platform to launch personalized CRM campaigns, dynamically change casino lobbies and bet slips and create engaging gamified experiences. You can learn more about that at OptiMove.com. And to see how this approach comes to life OptiMove Connect returns to London on March the 11th and 12th, 2026. It is the only user conference where marketers from around the world share real world results of positionless marketing, drive and efficiency and ROI. And you can register for that at connect.optimove.com. I'm Charlie Horner and today I'm joined by SBC's editor-at-large, Ted Manmure. and editor of SBC News, Ted Omclay. Ted Em, how are you doing? Very well. Tuesday, back on our pod land with you, Charlie. Excellent. It feels like a bit of a daily occurrence at this point, Ted. You're a regular. Might have to do up my booking fees. And Ted, I'll see. Thanks for coming on. How are you doing? Yeah, I'm good. Thank you, Charlie. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's always good to be here in pod land, as Ted put it. with you, you can be the honorary president of Podland, think. Given how much we work with you. What a privilege. All right, Ted Osea, you've done a little bit of digging into this report and sort of covered this on SBC News. So how about you give us sort of the overview, you know, who commissioned and funded the report, who prepared it and why was it produced? So as you said in the introduction, Bettingham Gaming Council commissioned this report. em It's examining advertising and marketing. I've found the timing of it to be quite interesting Given that I mean obviously this they'll have been working on this for quite some time em The company that carried out for them is I've got it written down. I don't want to mispronounce it Alvarez and Marcel Conducted the report into UK betting and gaming sponsorship marketing and advertising spend and economic contribution and so on. As I said, I found the timing of it in the publication, the timing of it, the timing of the publication interesting because at the moment from what we're seeing a lot of the political debate and scrutiny and gambling seems to be on the retail sector as we've discussed quite a bit before, know, betting shops in the high street, the aim to permit rule with licensing, adult gaming centers and so on. Advertising seems to have taken a bit of a uh back, it's on the back burner a little bit regarding politics, I think, in comparisons to retail. Although it is still there. mean, Alex Ballinger, MP, who's quite a big advocate of gambling or reform, mentioned advertising in a conversation about the FIFA stats reform deal the other week. But you know, the betting and gaming council is going to be very acutely aware that advertising is always a pretty hot button issue for the industry, it's quite a tense political one, has been for some time. There's a lot of people who, as I've said on many other podcasts before, there's a lot of people who feel that the Gambling Act review did not go far enough regarding sponsorship and marketing. It's main measure was the introduction of a code of conduct on sponsorships. And then obviously, aside from the Gambling Act review, you've got the Premier League having its voluntary ban on front of shirt sponsors. A lot of people wanted to reform advocates, wanted to see this go a bit further. So there's a lot of pressure around that and I think the BGC obviously wants to make the case for the, to show the value of betting marketing, what it contributes to the economy, its role in employment and its role in countering the black market, which obviously all talking points have heard before. Yeah, that's the main motivation behind it, I think. Really nice overview, thanks for that, Ted. But without sort of regurgitating the entire thing, could you just give us a glimpse of the headline numbers, some of the top lines that really caught your eye? So the one that caught my eye, and I should add as well, I the betting and gaming council probably want to put this across because of the tax increases that are coming in in April, which are widely expected to... They're going to impact betting marketing budgets particularly heavily. We've already seen Entain evoke and Flutter Entertainment say that they're going to cut marketing budgets by around 20%. We've seen the effects of that already with Entain cutting the Coral sponsorship of the Coral Cup. Obviously a horse racing event that was set up as the Coral Cup. always has been the Coral Cup and now it's no longer going to be the Coral Cup. because and they've directly attributed that to the fact that they need to reduce marketing spend because of the taxes. So that's one of the key, some of the key findings I found most interesting were around that. So seeing an estimation of the gross value added within the business supply chain from advertising and sponsorship of 506 million during the period the report covered. 84 million, yep, that is 84. 84 million spent on marketing employee salaries, 9,900 jobs supported via gambling advertising. Like I said earlier, the BGC is really wanting to hammer home here the significance of gambling marketing as a specific discipline to the wider UK economy. I think that's quite an interesting bit to focus on, obviously, in the context of the tax raisers. This is not the only thing they're focused on. also talked about the relationship between betting marketing and sports and the commercial lifeline there. That's a talking point that's as old as the hills when it comes to the debate around gambling regulation. I talked about the gambling app review earlier. Throughout all of that, we saw a lot of scrutiny on sponsorship, but then a lot of the counter arguments to that came from lower league clubs in particular. The EFL defended the partnership with Skybet that it's had running for many, many years now as being very significant to the financial support of the financial sustainability of low-elite clubs. So, know, again, we've seen the BGC focus on that. Focusing on social responsibility and advertising campaigns, a figure that they've put out there is that 20 % of operator marketing budgets currently go solely towards social responsibility initiatives, which I think is quite, you know, it's kind of interesting that that is a figure of 20 % and we're also expecting marketing budgets to shrink by about 20%. And again, another thing we've seen reiterated is the risk of the black market, threat of black market advertising. The report made a point that consumers are... responding to influencer advertising. think that was kind of interesting because I've seen that highlighted in other reports as well like one from DealMeOut last year. The Fomaro member talks about how influencers are quite heavily used by em offshore and unregulated crypto casinos. I guess in many of these cases, some of the influencers who sign deals with these companies might not be aware of who it is they're actually signing a deal with. which also links in with another kind of bit in this BUC report where they talk about how a lot of, again, this is something we've talked about on lot of podcasts before, but a lot of these offshore companies, particularly crypto casinos and so on, will brand themselves as non-gamstop casinos, which is a pretty deliberate and quite malicious strategy of targeting vulnerable, self-excluded customers who can no longer bear the regulated market because they've cut themselves off from suffering with problem gambling. in the legal betting space but then finding themselves falling into the sort of insidious arms of some offshore companies who don't adhere to that level of regulation. I think I've gone a bit of a rant on this one but I hope that gives people a bit of a breakdown. Hey, that shows that the report's got plenty in it and if people do want to see exactly what is in it, head to SBC News and get Ted's full rundown. Ted M. I'm sure you've taken a look at this report as well. What do you make of it and the fact that the BGC is bringing this to our attention at this specific point as well? I think, look, for me the headline figure is that as of a year ago, and if you look at this in terms of the last 12 months, the state of play has changed across... every segment or every vertical of UK gambling. And then that kind of concluded with a kind of real kind of game changing tax judgment. And as you said, that's kind of triggered even further revisions that are going to come into play in the next quarter to six months. So to see kind of a 30 million pound reduction, that was actually quite a significant amount. 12 months. 12 months before this tax break came into play, tells you a lot of where revisions were heading. We were already seeing leadership teams stating that marketing was a point of focus and in terms of where they viewed new margin controls, also where the spend is going, less on TV advertising, more online. And actually on verticals that can be tracked. Again, I just think that with the tax element coming into play, it just accelerates the transformation. Marketing will be impacted. It will be impacted, of course. Yeah. It goes to show that operators are looking for the most ROI they can get. They want every penny that they spend on their marketing to be able to be tracked. They want it to be counted for and to work out exactly. where the return is coming from from that. But as you say, is a reduction in spend across the board. m Ted M, we spoke about the illegal gambling task force yesterday. And as you say, this is the 12 months before the tax judgements come into play. It only goes to show that the illegal gambling task force is going to have a bit of a job on its hands given that the regulated sector is exposing itself. less to the masses via advertising, Yeah. I think it's an element that would concern the stakeholders. But again, it's also a challenge of a market has to be balanced. And we've seen in the places like Germany and Italy, for example, what happens when there are no advertising channels available to the licensed market. It confuses the player. It actually gives just such an open space for illegal operators to target consumers. Also, the consumer doesn't know the end-to-end rules of the market. So, they can incentivize them with better potency, with better return on plays, uh more aggressive slots. And also, as you said, no need to provide safer gambling tools and easier and much easier on boarding. And I just don't think it's an advertising element. But I think that that really kind of helps the black market kind of foster and know how to target a player and then board them onto the legal website. Brilliant. Well, Ted, Ted, we'll take a short break and we'll come back and we'll dive into this a little bit more. Welcome back to iGaming Daily. Today we're focusing on a advertising report that the Betting and Gaming Council has brought to our attention. Ted OC. Looking at this, we can see that advertising spend is on the decline amongst UK licensed operators, but have we just learnt that they're essentially shifting their spend away from traditional TV advertising and more towards digital advertising rather than going through a fundamental shift away from advertising as a whole? Or do think it's a bit more of a serious issue than that? em That's a nuanced question really. mean yeah, we are seeing a shift away from TV advertising which will be eh quite costly and is also obviously very difficult to target. It's more mass market so you don't know who could be watching the TV and who could be viewing your advert if it's someone from a vulnerable position, if it's a younger person, if it's an underage person, if it's someone who's recovering from gambling harm and problem gambling. I guess in that sense, yeah, we are seeing a shift away from that, just not only because of the cost, but maybe because it's just better PR, it's less likely to cause regulatory problems and so on, and it's a way of avoiding the quite heated conversations and the scrutiny we've seen. But on top of that, I think we are also seeing a shift away from not just the traditional TV advertising, but traditional sponsorships. em That's not just with the Premier League self-imposed ban coming into effect, but I mentioned earlier Coral Cutting it's sponsorship of em the Coral Cup at Cheltenham. That's quite a significant shift because that's betting taking a step away from one of its traditional allies and a very important marketing channel of horse racing. and kind of showing that the victory that horse racing celebrated after it's acts, the racing tax campaign is not an entire, you know, 100 % victory. Like we've talked about in previous podcasts, that's still going to feel the effect of this as a result of operators cutting their marketing budgets. Like you say around digital, I think we are, you know, we will see a continued shift towards digital advertising, towards social media. Although that's still an area that isn't entirely without scrutiny as well. We often see complaints to the ASA about operator m social media posts and the inclusion of sports figures within that, which some people argue is appealing to younger people. I think that the shift towards digital advertising is going to have been driven by general consumer behavior and changes in the way people consume media and the types of media they interact with. As a result, it's also as a result of regulatory frictions and compliance em issues, considerations. And now it's all that, you know, these, these taxes are now piling on another, another reason for that shift. Ted, how do you look at this? Do you think it is a more fundamental shift away from just brand awareness kind of plays and it is more targeted? Or is it just one line from a much wider storyline that you've noticed? I think for the PLCs, it's kind of a fundamental shift of that marketing spend. I don't necessarily think that it's just, oh, we're going to start a lesson on TV advertising. I think that we're kind of viewing each channel. we're just seeing this across the board, not only in television advertising, but one sector that's been hugely affected is affiliate marketing. And again, this always just, it's just going to come back to what brings you kind of the fastest ROI with best margins. And again, going back to like the theme this year is that everyone, everything's under inspection and everything's under revision. So why shouldn't that apply to marketing and your marketing channels? We've seen this kind of condition go out to the affiliates and the contracts that they're on. And we are kind of seeing it with the marketing and the marketing agencies and how much they're to spend. I think that operators just on the whole are much more demanding and much more analytical of where every buck is being spent. It's an interesting question that I've lined up next because what is this report trying to achieve? Ostensibly, we know what it's trying to achieve. The Bettener Gaming Council are trying to get some positive headlines for the industry showing that advertising does have this wider economic impact. It supports nearly 10,000 jobs, cetera, et cetera. But is just this report and a few possible headlines and an industry podcast covering the story enough to fight back against what is a very hostile environment? We've spoken about this before, that gambling is getting a particularly rough hearing in the press and in Westminster. Ted M, what do you think? this going to help the BGC achieve what it's trying to achieve? I kind of understand your anxieties. I've spoken to you before where we look at these BGC reports and their messaging, but it's underlining. At the of the day, we keep on asking, what does this trade body want? What does it want to say to the government? What is the exact message? ah Because in here you get kind of two points which are like, hey, we're lessening down advertising as of 2025. And this is how many people, you know, we feel that are being employed due to gambling advertising. But what really is the concern here is that the Labour government might reopen the gambling review and the advertising and a remit of it. So just get to the point. make, you know, that would be my advice there. clearer messaging over reports and state that the gambling industry is willing to work, right? um You know, into iron out kind of concerns with ministers. Yeah, I mean, if you know, uh I'd probably just to piggyback off what Ted said, we've talked about this before. We've covered all sorts of reports on this podcast, haven't we? And the one thing we've always said is that every report you do always have to take things with a pinch of salt because the people have commissioned the report. doesn't matter if it's the BGC, if it's the University of Bristol, if it's the campaign to end gambling advertising, I think that's what they're called. They've all got their own agenda and their own objectives, that's fine, that's their job as campaigning organisations, as trade bodies, as whatever. But ministers and MPs are going to be aware of that and I think that links in with what Ted said of maybe, instead of reports and stuff, sort of clearer messaging, better conversations, better relationships is the way forward really than, yeah, then potentially having a report fall on deaf ears because an MP just doesn't trust it or isn't interested or whatever. Look, mean, Michael Dougher's left the BGC and I think it's going to have to take on a strategy, especially in terms of ah It's communications. But what I always feel with the BGC is that they just they always try and kind of attach themselves to a separate narrative away from gaming. And I think at one point, you just got to present, look, this is the industry, it's regulated in the UK. These are the actors. These are the leadership. What are you going to do about it? And just, yeah, kind of be more kind of forthright with with what it's trying to kind of put across to the ministers. Well, that's it because this is an industry that feels like it's fighting a losing battle here, particularly with this government who seem to be a little bit more critical of the industry than previous governments. So what does the next step look like for that industry comm strategy or the BGC's comm strategy? Is it just being a little bit more direct in the way it tells a story rather than, you know, I don't want to say hiding behind, but presenting stats and reports to do the storytelling, do they need to come out and tell a more direct story? I think that the setting up of this new illegal gambling task force is quite a good opportunity for the industry to improve its engagement with politics and government in this country because we know that that task force is at some point going to want to get an industry opinion, whether through consultations or just general chat about. What is it you guys do? What advertising you've been doing? What's your experience of competing against illegal operators and so on? I think that's quite a good chance for the industry to work with government proactively against a common enemy, as it were, which is the illegal market, and then to build up a good relationship from that point on. Although obviously, again, I would also maybe consider the fact that the government of this illegal gambling task force, one of the things they are going to be focused on is clamping down on illegal gambling advertising. that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to just give the regulated industry free rein on advertising as well. Ted, anything you'd like to add on there? I mean, to me, it's back in Labour's hands. again, know, always go back to, know, Ted Osei's written about this, about Labour kind of viewing, that they took on a mandate that was very kind of soft-touch by the Conservative government, in that they have to kind of apply their own footprint on it. And... The one that, know, glares with standing out is advertising and what they choose to do with it and what restrictions they choose to apply. And I won't be surprised if they reopen it by come the end of the year. a dull day in the UK gambling industry is there. But we'll watch it with bated breath and we'll bring listeners right up to date with it at every stage of what may come next. But Ted, Ted. Thank very much for joining me today. We'll leave a link to your coverage in the show notes so readers can take a look. But to the audience, thank you very much for tuning into today's episode of iGaming Daily and come back tomorrow to keep up to date with all the latest global gambling news.