The advent of social media has disrupted nearly every industry, and online gambling is no exception. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat have fundamentally transformed customers’ expectations around accessibility, community and engagement. For the online gambling brands like Just Casino, this represents a seismic shift in reach and norms that creates both opportunities and ethical quandaries around addiction and problem gambling behaviors.
Pervasive Accessibility Drives Growth
Online casinos have grappled for years with limiting access only to verified individuals above legal gambling age. However stringent their registration controls, illicit access remained an issue. Social media has blown these controls wide open, enabling access to anyone with an internet connection and account.
Platforms like Zynga offer free-to-play social casino games integrated directly into Facebook and mobile apps. With social shares, recommendations, and invitations, online gambling content now pervades both adult and underage feeds. This low barrier accessibility helps fuel impressive growth for the social casino market, which SuperData projects will reach $4.4 billion in revenue by 2022.
Accessibility advantages don’t end with underage users. Social sites provide a simple entry point for demographic groups previously less likely to gamble online, like women over 55. The familiarity of playing slot machines or poker on already frequented networks makes the leap into real-money gambling less intimidating. Higher trust and engagement with social platforms lead to higher conversion rates for online gambling operators.
Connected Online Communities Normalize Betting
For veteran online gamblers, social media provides a new way to connect over common interests. Facebook groups for sharing tips, https://slotspeak.com/smartsoft-gaming/ wins, and losses foster a sense of community and social proof that makes gambling seem more mainstream. Even those not actively placing bets get continuous exposure to betting behaviors from these online communities.
Seeing friends post about sports wagers, poker tournaments or casino jackpots gives the impression that gambling is a normal, commonplace activity. This normalization can increase general acceptance of gambling, much like social media has done for cryptocurrency trading, day trading stocks, and other financial behaviors once seen as niche or risky.
These connected communities similarly provide a powerful venue for gambling operators’ influencer marketing campaigns. In the largely unregulated social sphere, it becomes easier to enlist influencers to promote online betting without proper disclosures about sponsorship or affiliate relationships. Consumers may take recommendations as unbiased opinions rather than paid promotions.
Multi-Channel Marketing Expands Reach
For gambling platforms, social media complements more restrictive channels like search and display advertising. Google and Facebook both instituted policies years ago prohibiting online gambling ads to limit exposure for vulnerable groups and comply with regulations. Gambling businesses still maintain an active presence on social networks, circumventing policy restrictions by promoting entertainment products like free slot games or fantasy sports leagues as gateways to real-money betting.
These creative workarounds demonstrate social media’s marketing advantage over-regulated advertising channels. Gambling platforms leverage networks’ expansive data targeting to identify engaged users most likely to convert across multiple properties. Those converted on Zynga slots or DraftKings fantasy may transfer over to real bets on affiliated online casinos or sportsbooks.
Layering social media atop traditional digital marketing allows gambling brands to cast a much wider net with lower acquisition costs compared to relying solely on Google and Facebook ads. The UK Gambling Commission estimates over 25% of 16-24-year-olds follow gambling companies on social, creating an owned channel for brands to directly influence emerging generations of bettors.
Conclusion
Social media has done more than any regulation to expand access and exposure to online gambling. While increased accessibility and acceptance create growth opportunities for gambling operators, it also raises pressing ethical questions around addiction and problem iGaming that the industry still struggles to address.