Offshore betting firms continue to advertise, albeit with low volume
Despite two advisories from MIB, betting firm advertisements were still on air till October 8, TAM data reveals
Even as the Ministry of Information Broadcasting issued two advisories to media houses, one on June 13 and another on October 3, urging them to refrain from promoting offshore betting firms that allegedly masquerade as “sports news platform”, surrogate advertising in this category has not stopped completely, data made available by TAM has revealed.
Parimatch News, the top advertiser on TV so far with 99% share in ad volume, continued its promos at least till October 8, the data shows.
Its ad volume shrunk dramatically post October 3, fluctuating between 9 per cent to 28 per cent of what it used to be before. The firm also kept its digital ads suspended in this period.
It is to be noted that while Parimatch News had been the top in TV ad volume so far, Wolf777 accounted for the rest, TAM has stated earlier.
22betpartners, whose name didn’t figure on the MIB list, continued its ad promotions on TV until October 8.
Wolf777 ads can still be spotted on cab aggregator vehicles in Delhi. Fairplay News, which occupied two thirds of the digital ad volume so far, is the co-sponsor for the ‘RRR’ premiere on &TV on October 16.
These names did figure on the MIB list of “international sports news platforms”. The five names were: PariMatch News, Fairplay News, Betway, Wolf 777 and 1xBet.
Commenting on the advisory, Roland Landers, CEO of All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), said: “Media houses are expected to do due diligence before running any content on their platforms. On the contrary, they are collecting ad revenue from betting companies by directly dealing with them.”
e4m carried a news report on October 12 about how advertising and promotional activities by global gambling firms has grown exponentially over the last two years despite a ban on betting and surrogate advertising.
Read here: https://www.exchange4media.com/advertising-news/offshore-betting-firms-tv-promotion-grew-20-fold-digital-14-fold-in-two-years-122983.html
Most of this surge came between 2021 and 2022 (till Oct), when many other companies were tightening their advertising budgets due to the pandemic-led slowdown and the following inflation.
Rs 4,000 cr ad blitzkrieg
Although advertising betting is banned in the country, it has been going on unabated across TV and digital media.
Surrogate advertising of several banned products such as alcoholic beverages and tobacco has remained a grey area in the country, thus offering a long rope to advertisers and media houses, industry experts point out.
The ad spend by offshore gambling platforms may runs into hundreds of crores, say industry observers. Roland Landers pegs the figure at Rs 3,500 crore annually, while Shanu Jain, Vice President - Media Planning & Strategy, Dentsu Creative India, says the figure could be anywhere between Rs 3,700 crore to Rs 5,180 crore annually.
Most of these companies started getting a foothold in India a few years ago. Now, illegal offshore gambling has grown into a whopping Rs 5 lakh-crore business in the country, according to an estimate by AIGF.
On Sports, Cinema & TV
Betting portals have been advertising via sports sponsorship, film awards and TV shows.
For instance, Parimatch News is the integrated partner of Vivo Pro Kabaddi and has also signed a sponsorship deal with Rajasthan Warriors, one of the six teams in the Ultimate Kho Kho league.
While Wolf777news was the title sponsor of the 67th Filmfare Awards this year, “FairPlay News” was broadcast on a sports TV channel during Asia Cup this August.
Govt Crackdown
On October 3, the government urged TV, print and digital media platforms asking them not to publish advertisements of online betting platforms on online and social media.
The online advertisement intermediaries were also advised not to target such advertisements towards the Indian audience.
“The advisory had been issued for the reason that betting and gambling is prohibited in most parts of the country, and pose significant financial and socio- economic risk for the consumers, especially youth and children. Accordingly, the promotion of offline or online betting/gambling through advertisements is not advised in the larger public interest,” it stated.
