Come 2020, the primary gatekeeper of search engine advertising is opening the doors for online casinos and sports books to advertise on its U.S. platform after a long-term ban.
Contained in Google’s new advertising rules and policies, sports betting ads are permitted in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Indiana and Montana, where state authorities have deemed it legal. (Currently, Google prohibits casino ads in the U.S., although it allows online sports betting ads in New Jersey, Nevada and West Virginia, alongside advertising for state-run lotteries.)
Sports betting advertisements from Kenya, Colombia and Nigeria will be specifically banned on Google’s U.S. site.
International gaming companies companies now have a key avenue to compete for customers in the U.S. gaming market. Tribal and commercial casino operators can also leverage new kinds of sports betting and marketing opportunities.
This news comes on the heels of Google beginning to greenlight agreements for fantasy sports ads in August.
Google is ranked as the world’s third-largest brand behind Amazon and Apple. So the tech giant’s influence lends itself to a domino effect, influencing the advertising policy of its competitors — particularly considering it’s a lucrative move.
Until the rest of the market catches on, “they’ve left the likes of Facebook and Yahoo, who normally compete for [the same] ad spend, behind in the start blocks,” Gavin Moore, director of group acquisition marketing at Better Collective, a Danish company that educates gaming customers and connects them with operators, told US Bets.
