PokerStars Ramps Up Online Casino Marketing Efforts

PokerStars launched its real money poker product in December 2001, and for more than a decade the brand was subsequently seen as a safe haven for poker players to visit without having to face the temptations posed by other gambling games. That all changed in 2014, however, after PokerStars launched its online casino, and now at the beginning of this week PokerStars officially launched its first ever television advert specifically promoting this vertical.
On Monday, the 30-second commercial appeared across UK television networks, and focussed upon promoting to a mainstream audience the “cutting-edge digital graphics” it uses to offer slots, blackjack and roulette games. Commenting on the advertising campaign, Sam Hobcraft, Director of PokerStars Casino, explained:
“In just two years, PokerStars Casino has grown immensely; we are already one of the world’s leading online casinos. PokerStars Casino is currently a well-kept secret for poker players, who love to play casino, and we now feel it is the right time to share our unique product and customer experience with a wider audience.”
As mentioned, PokerStars started out as a poker site for purists, but following the launch of PokerStars Casino the vertical grew to represent 15% of Amaya’s revenues in Q3 of 2015, before jumping to a 24% share by Q3 of 2016. The brand was helped along by its huge customer base of more than 105 million customers, but now PokerStars is hoping to attract a wider audience outside of that current base.
Launching its first casino advert in the UK also demonstrated PokerStars’ commitment to one of the biggest online gambling markets in the world, as well as one in which TV gambling adverts have been booming over the past few years. Since 2012, for instance, TV commercial expenditure by gambling firms has increased by 46% in the UK, and by the end of 2015 around £456 million had been spent promoting their products via television advertising. From that amount, gambling TV ads accounted for £118.5 million of total expenditure in 2015, up by a whopping 46% over 2012’s tally of £81.2 million.