20 effective igaming advertising strategies that are proven successful
Originally published September 2024. Updated October 12, 2026.
The strongest iGaming marketing plays share one trait: they build something a competitor cannot copy with a bigger media budget, such as a parent loyalty program, a long-running creative property, a media partnership or an owned content asset. This guide organizes 20 real programs from U.S.-regulated operators, international brands, platform suppliers and adjacent categories, and flags which ones have changed or ended since they launched.
The U.S. operators set the playbook by tying an online brand to something they already owned: a casino loyalty program, a media relationship or a retail customer base. Ten examples show the range, from the largest joint venture to a shutdown that became a case study.
1. BetMGM, the MGM Resorts and Entain joint venture. BetMGM pairs MGM Resorts' casino brand and MGM Rewards loyalty program with Entain's online technology, so one member identity spans the resort floor and the app. Celebrity creative, including campaigns with Jamie Foxx and Tom Brady, sits on top of that base. Lesson: the loyalty program is the acquisition engine, and the creative only has to make it visible. The communications side is covered in How BetMGM Used Strategic PR.
2. DraftKings Casino and Golden Nugget Online Gaming, 2022. DraftKings completed its acquisition of Golden Nugget Online Gaming in May 2022 in a $1.56 billion all-stock deal, adding an iGaming operation and a casino brand to its sportsbook customer base. Lesson: a sportsbook leader can buy its way into casino instead of building from scratch. The deal is covered in DraftKings Acquires Golden Nugget.
3. FanDuel Casino, part of Flutter Entertainment. FanDuel Casino cross-sells from the largest sportsbook customer base in the country, with the same brand voice and app. Lesson: when a sportsbook already owns share of attention, casino marketing becomes a cross-sell exercise, not a new acquisition campaign.
4. Caesars Palace Online Casino, Caesars Digital. Caesars connects its online casino to Caesars Rewards, so online play earns status and resort benefits. The Manning family creative that supported Caesars Sportsbook in 2021 and 2022 gave the digital brand a recognizable face. Lesson: the same loyalty logic as BetMGM, with a different creative property on top. See also Casino Public Relations.
5. Borgata Online Casino, 2013. Borgata launched among the first licensed online casinos in New Jersey in November 2013 and is now owned by MGM Resorts and integrated with BetMGM. Lesson: being early in a regulated market builds brand memory that later entrants have to buy.
6. Hard Rock Bet, 2023. Hard Rock International launched Hard Rock Bet in late 2023, anchored by the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the global Hard Rock brand. Lesson: music and entertainment heritage differentiates a newcomer from digital-only competitors. The property side of the same identity is in the 25 best casino marketing campaigns.
7. ESPN BET and PENN Entertainment, 2023 to 2025. In August 2023, PENN agreed a 10-year deal with ESPN for the exclusive U.S. use of the ESPN BET trademark, in exchange for $150 million a year in cash payments plus warrants, according to PENN's filing. The two sides ended it early, effective December 1, 2025, and PENN rebranded its U.S. sportsbook as theScore Bet. DraftKings became ESPN's official sportsbook and odds provider. Lesson: a media brand can open the door, but the product still has to win market share. PENN says it is now leading with its Hollywood-branded iCasino, which stays integrated with the sportsbook and connected to its PENN Play loyalty program.
8. Fanatics Sportsbook and Casino. Fanatics acquired the U.S. operations of PointsBet for $225 million in 2023 and later added casino to its platform. The advantage is the Fanatics merchandise and fan base, which no sportsbook-only operator has. Lesson: an existing consumer relationship is worth more than a bigger bonus. Profile: Fanatics Sportsbook.
9. BetRivers and Rush Street Interactive. BetRivers has pursued a profitability-first strategy in regulated U.S. states and avoided the heaviest market-share spending. Lesson: a smaller operator can build a durable business by choosing where to compete, a counter-example to the dominant sportsbook playbook.
10. WynnBET wind-down, 2023. Wynn Resorts wound down WynnBET's sportsbook and iGaming operations in most states in 2023. It remains the most-cited example of a casino brand that could not turn a strong property name into online scale. Lesson: a luxury resort brand does not automatically convert to a mass-market app.
What did international and offshore brands add?
International and offshore brands added the creative and sponsorship ideas that U.S. rules make harder to run. Six examples show what they built and what has since changed.
11. Stake.com and the Drake partnership. Stake, a crypto-native casino operating largely outside the U.S. regulated market, built one of the most-watched gambling content programs of the early 2020s through its Drake partnership, with single sessions drawing tens of millions of views on social platforms. Lesson: entertainment content can replace traditional advertising where paid media is restricted. The full analysis is in Stake.com and the Attention Economy.
12. Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, 2024 and 2025. Stake and the streaming platform Kick held the Sauber Formula One team's naming rights for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The team became Audi's factory team from 2026, so the sponsorship has ended. Lesson: a title sponsorship gives year-round global visibility, but it is a fixed term, and the brand has to carry what it built afterward.
13. 888 and David Beckham, 2016. 888 signed David Beckham as a global brand ambassador in 2016, one of the largest celebrity endorsements in online gambling. Lesson: a single globally known face gives a brand a consistent identity across markets. See Ideal Casino Spokesman.
14. Bet365 and Ray Winstone's "Bet In-Play." Bet365 ran Ray Winstone's "Bet In-Play" television campaign for years across the UK and other markets, one of the longest-running single-creative campaigns in gambling. Lesson: repeating one creative property builds recognition that quarterly refreshes cannot.
15. Casumo's gamified brand. Casumo built its European online casino around adventure-style progression and storytelling-led product design, an early example of gamification as brand strategy. Lesson: product design can carry the brand story, not just the advertising.
16. PokerStars EPT and WCOOP. The European Poker Tour and the World Championship of Online Poker are long-running tentpole events that anchor the PokerStars brand. Lesson: a recurring event gives a brand a calendar of coverage, much as a league does for a sportsbook.
Why do supplier brands matter?
Supplier brands matter because the games and live tables that players see are often built by a few platform companies, and their relationships shape what operators can market.
17. Evolution live dealer streaming. Evolution leads the live-dealer casino category, supplying live-streamed table games to many major operators, and it acquired NetEnt in 2020, combining live-dealer and slot content under one company. Lesson: the supplier is a marketing channel too, since live dealers and branded tables appear inside many operators' apps.
18. NetEnt slot franchises. NetEnt, now part of Evolution, built brand programs around marquee titles such as Starburst and Gonzo's Quest. Lesson: a recognizable game title can be a brand in its own right, independent of the operator that hosts it.
Which adjacent categories are reshaping iGaming?
Two adjacent categories are reshaping iGaming marketing: online lottery and sweepstakes casino.
19. Jackpocket and lottery couriers. Jackpocket, which DraftKings acquired in 2024, and theLotter built mobile-app distribution for state lottery products. Lesson: lottery is a fast-growing adjacent category that borrows iGaming's app and loyalty model. See Lottery Public Relations.
20. The sweepstakes casino crackdown, 2025 and 2026. Several states, including California and New York, moved to ban or restrict sweepstakes casinos, the parallel market that operated in a legal gray zone for years. Lesson: a marketing model built on a regulatory gap can disappear by statute, and regulated operators are the beneficiaries. The unwind is analyzed in The Sweepstakes Casino Wipeout.
What changed in 2025 and 2026?
Three changes stand out since this guide was first published. First, the ESPN BET partnership ended early on December 1, 2025, after PENN and ESPN agreed to terminate under a clause that allowed either side to exit if market-share targets were not met, which shows how hard it is to buy a podium position with a media brand alone. Second, the Stake and Kick title sponsorship of Sauber ran only through the 2025 season. Third, sweepstakes casinos are being restricted state by state, while regulated online casino keeps growing. Operators are now putting more weight on iCasino, loyalty cross-sell and performance-based marketing than on fixed media spend, a shift PENN described directly when it announced its realignment.
What do the strongest programs share?
The strongest programs share three structural features. They integrate with parent loyalty infrastructure, as BetMGM does with MGM Rewards and Caesars Palace Online Casino does with Caesars Rewards, so the online brand has acquisition leverage that a standalone operator cannot match. They run sustained creative properties, such as Bet365 with Ray Winstone, rather than quarterly refreshes, so recognition compounds. And they are built to be found: each partnership, acquisition and campaign becomes a document that ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews can retrieve and cite.
That last point is the newest. AI engines treat gambling queries with more hedging and more legality framing than other categories, so operators with clear licensing pages, documented programs and independent coverage are easier to cite. The research is in Inside AI's Online Casino Blind Spot and Gambling PR and AI Visibility. Reputation risk compounds the same way: Betting Scandals Stay in the Answer Forever shows how integrity cases stay in AI answers.
Sources for the ESPN BET termination: PENN Entertainment's November 6, 2025 announcement and its 2025 annual report. This piece is part of the Everything-PR Gambling Public Relations Pillar.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most effective iGaming marketing tactic?
Connecting the iGaming brand to an existing loyalty program. BetMGM with MGM Rewards and Caesars Palace Online Casino with Caesars Rewards give guests one member identity across the resort and the app, which a standalone operator cannot copy.
Why do sustained campaigns work better than short-term ones?
Repetition builds recognition. Bet365's Ray Winstone campaign ran for years, and long-running associations give both audiences and AI engines more material to retrieve than a creative that resets every quarter.
What happened to ESPN BET?
PENN Entertainment and ESPN mutually ended the partnership effective December 1, 2025, and PENN rebranded its U.S. online sportsbook as theScore Bet. PENN said the contract allowed an exit after the third year if market-share thresholds were not met, and DraftKings became ESPN's official sportsbook.
What happened to WynnBET?
Wynn Resorts wound down WynnBET's sportsbook and iGaming operations in most states in 2023, after the brand could not reach the scale needed to compete with larger operators.
How is Stake.com different from U.S.-regulated iGaming operators?
Stake operates largely outside the U.S. regulated market as a crypto-native casino. It built its brand through entertainment and sports partnerships such as Drake and its Formula One naming rights for 2024 and 2025, not through loyalty integration with a resort company.
What is happening to sweepstakes casinos?
Several states, including California and New York, have moved to ban or restrict them. The market is unwinding, and regulated online casino operators stand to gain from it.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team is the staff byline for news, analysis and features on communications, reputation, AI visibility and digital discovery. Everything-PR has published since 2009. AI tools assist with research and drafting, and every article is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Coverage follows the Editorial Policy, and substantive corrections are noted on the article under the Corrections Policy.
