The gambling industry’s deluge of sports-betting ads and free-money offers on television, radio and online, is beginning to concern regulators.
Online gambling operators, such as DraftKings Inc. and FanDuel Group, are spending hundreds of millions of dollars, and large shares of their revenues, on marketing, putting sports wagering in front of the American consumer. The push includes celebrity-filled TV commercials, advertising on billboards and podcasts, and sponsorships such as a DraftKings logo superimposed on the pitcher’s mound of a Major League Baseball broadcast.
In New Jersey, a top regulator has warned about sports-betting marketing efforts. “If the industry does not control itself, the government will step in and certainly create standards they may not want,” David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Department of Gaming Enforcement, said during a panel discussion in September.
