Operating in one of the UK’s most heavily regulated industries brings its fair share of challenges to our clients in the gambling sector. With brands across both online casino and sportsbook gambling, we’ve had to navigate gambling regulations responsibly, whilst also ensuring we’re delivering the strongest results for our clients.
Tactics to advertise gambling brands have shifted dramatically
How and where Online Casino and Sportsbook brands can advertise has seen a dramatic change over the last few years. While the post 9pm restriction on TV advertising has been around since 2007, newer restrictions have all had an impact. Gambling brands have had to adapt to not using celebrity ambassadors who might appeal to a younger audience; the whistle-to-whistle ban during live sport and tightening rules around acquisition offers and bonuses.
Alternatives to TV initially led us to increase our gambling clients’ investment in channels such as radio and OOH where rules are less stringent. These channels enable us to reach a similar audience to TV and have brand presence around live sports, a key area for many gambling brands’ target audience.
Following the increased restrictions around bonus and acquisition offers, we developed a rigorous creative testing programme across paid social to understand what messaging is the most effective before implementing it across our broadcast channels. Customer priorities are shifting towards frictionless journeys with less hurdles for them to jump in order to play. This is being reflected in messaging across the online casino category in particular.
HFSS advertising restrictions have put a significant squeeze on post 9pm TV inventory
When new advertising rules for HFSS brands were introduced at the start of 2026, the food and beverage industry wasn’t the only one to be affected. One restriction saw HFSS brands only being allowed to advertise after 9pm on linear TV. Given the category spent more than £300m on linear TV advertising in 2025, this put a significant squeeze on post 9pm TV inventory. The restrictions have also led HFFS brands to expand their existing activity across OOH and radio where they have more freedom. This reduced the amount of available inventory and increased competition for gambling brands that had already begun looking to increase their spend in these channels.
To combat both the gambling restrictions and this increased competition from HFSS brands, we have introduced smarter targeting across VOD, addressable linear TV, digital audio and digital OOH to ensure we’re maximising our reach and minimising wastage against our clients’ audiences.
