The barrage of advertising for online sports betting sites is getting on the nerves of Canadians, recent research suggests.
Polling firm Ipsos announced on Monday findings from a survey it conducted in November, including that 48% of Canadians it asked agreed that the amount of advertising for sports betting sites in Ontario and other provinces is too much and should be reduced.
Many Canadians do not like what they see. According to Ipsos, 42% of adults said the sportsbook ads are not very enjoyable to watch. Moreover, Ipsos reported that 63% of Canadians agreed there should be limits on advertising for online sports betting and internet casino gambling.
Perhaps more revealing are the findings from a separate "social listening analysis" done by Ipsos, which found negative posts about sports betting advertising on social media had surged by 820% between July 2022 and October 2022.
“It’s clear that iGaming creative must be more compelling and efficient,” the polling company said in a press release. “But it also must be more relevant and regionally precise: Ipsos’ study suggests that despite the high volume of ads, few are failing to educate their audience, leading to a false sense of understanding about who can legally operate betting sites in different provinces.”
The Ontario Effect
There was a bit of confusion found about which types of companies are legally allowed to take bets, with 37% of those surveyed telling Ipsos that it was their local lottery corporation and another 37% thinking it is the government and the private sector. Around 20% reported they were unsure about who is providing legal sports betting and otherwise.
That is an issue, as Ontario is currently the only province in Canada with a regulated market for internet casino gambling and online sports betting that allows multiple private-sector entities to participate. Ontario launched its competitive iGaming market in April of 2022: before then, government-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. was the only legal provider of online gambling in Canada’s most populous province.
Ontario’s iGaming market is arguably the catalyst for the deluge of sports-betting ads Canadians are seeing. Operators are trying to make customers aware of their businesses, and allowing them to advertise widely alerts Ontarians to the legal options they have available to them.
One of the reasons for Ontario's new framework was that the provincial government wanted to move wagering that was already happening with non-provincially regulated websites to ones that were under Ontario-based oversight.
The launch of Ontario's iGaming market has likely led to more online gambling by people in the province in general. Ipsos found 47% of Ontario adults reported doing some form of online gambling in the past year, compared to 40% across Canada. The polling firm noted that 30% of Ontarians said they had tried sports betting, while just 22% of all Canadians said the same.
'A fever pitch'
There are advertising rules for Ontario iGaming operators, such as a ban on widely promoting free bets and other gambling inducements. Several operators have faced fines due to alleged advertising infractions in the province.
Nevertheless, concerns have grown about the amount of advertising and the types of promotion that companies use. One tactic that has recently come under scrutiny is the partnerships operators have struck with prominent athletes, such as BetMGM with Connor McDavid, and what effect that could have on younger people.
The availability of online gambling and the COVID-19 pandemic have also weighed on the amount of in-person wagering people are doing. While 40% or more of Canadians reported going to a casino at least once a year before the pandemic, in 2022, that was down to 26%, the Ipsos survey found. Meanwhile, 30% of Canadians said they had played casino games through an app or website.
“Just eight months after the Ontario government launched a regulated online gambling market in their province, Ontarians and Canadians alike are making more online bets than ever — and marketing for betting platforms has hit a fever pitch, from banner ads and billboards to primetime TV,” Ipsos said.
Here's why we should have more faith in millennials to navigate the infodemic on social media. Ipsos' Lisa Byers shares research and insights with Global News.https://t.co/BtdthcyTH2
— Ipsos Canada (@IpsosCanada) January 16, 2023
People outside of Ontario may see Ontario-intended ads as well, creating confusion. Most other provinces offer online gambling through provincial lottery corporations, although many residents are likely wagering via “grey market” sites that are regulated or licensed abroad.
So, while 49% of Ontarians told Ipsos (correctly) that government and private companies were eligible to offer online gambling, sizable segments in other provinces thought the same (incorrectly), such as 42% in Alberta.
“Although all other regions of this country (outside of Ontario) only have the government as the legal option, many residents of those provinces think that both the government and private betting companies are permitted to operate,” Ipsos noted.
Ipsos conducted its polling in November of 2022, surveying 2,002 Canadian adults. The company said the poll is considered accurate to within 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, if all Canadian adults had been polled.
