Gambling ads pay off to Swedish media

The latest trends from Sweden reveal that in online gambling advertising are paying handsome dividends to Swedish media outlets, in spite of the regulatory endeavors to to reduce the activity.

As per the analysis conducted by Sifo Advertising Measurements and Dagens Media, a whopping €560 million was spent on online gambling advertising in 2017. This expenditure was considerably higher than 2016’s €386 million for the same purpose and set a new market record.

Kindred Group set the tone with a total ad spend of €45 million, 12 per cent more than it spent in 2016 with its flagship brand, Unibet. It was followed by LeoVegas, which came in second after jumping 83 per cent year-on-year to €31.8 million.

“Swedish gambling is the wild west right now,” said Svenska Spel CEO, Lennart Käll, his comments following Swedish regulator Lotteriinspektionen’s unsuccessful efforts to clamp down unauthorised gambling advertising. The local body warned media outlets about gambling ads but had no effect on 2017’s performance, with media publishers labelling attempts to ban promotion as “a threat to Swedish democracy” and that it stops media outlets from being able to “conduct independent journalistic work” that serves the greater public.