Everywhere you drive, watch TV or listen to the radio in New Jersey, you’ll see an ad or hear about online gambling sites now up-and running in the state.
More than a month out from the state’s late November launch of online gaming, casinos and their online partners have either started major marketing campaigns or are about to.
Ads for Ucasino.com and UltimatePoker have been a constant on local TV. Billboards for several online sites line the state’s highways and radio spots are incessant. And that’s just from the early birds.
Several casino companies such as Caesars Entertainment—which owns four Atlantic City casinos—purposely waited for the online sites to be tested and the technical kinks worked out before starting ad campaigns. Caesars expects to launch a massive campaign this month.
For Atlantic City, the campaigns mark an all-in approach as it starts its new online industry.
“They are using every angle—every traditional media angle they can,” Donald Hoover, an expert on the casino industry and a professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University said in a report by the Newark Star-Ledger. “They are spending a lot of money advertising.”
The push also reaches far beyond the state’s borders since the only way to reach most of the state’s television viewers is through major buys on Philadelphia and New York TV stations, along with cable buys in New Jersey.
“We will empty out our pockets in marketing dollars in 2014 and sort of judge things a year from now,” Seth Palansky, a spokesman for Caesars told the Ledger.
Caesars offers four gambling sites, including WSOP.com
Ucasino ads were the first to hit the airwaves, but ads have also begun to show up for Betfair. The two are partnered separately with the two Trump casinos in Atlantic City—Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza respectively.
Many of the early campaigns reflect just how new the online gambling industry is to New Jersey residents as some ads include explanations of just what online gambling is. For example, a Betfair ad shows two gamblers playing online on an electronic device while standing on a basketball court with the New York skyline in the distance.
Advertising analysts say the casinos and online sites will have to launch large campaigns to both educate the public and get their message across.
Though many campaigns haven’t begun yet, the early response to online gambling has been strong as more than 126,000 gambling accounts have been opened at the state’s 14 online gambling sites. That number doesn’t necessarily represent 126,000 different players, however, as many players have opened accounts at different sites.
Further, GeoComply, a major provider of geolocation services for New Jersey’s online gambling sites, recently announced it has processed more than 5 million geolocation results.
The number of accounts has been growing steadily since the November launch and state officials say part of that is due to the casino’s early marketing efforts.
David Rebuck, director of the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement said online gaming in the state has seen a “steady and continual increase in site traffic,” due to the “outreach of the casino operators.”
“We are encouraged by their marketing efforts and are optimistic for the future of New Jersey’s internet gaming industry,” Rebuck said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the state continues to bank on online gambling to turn around Atlantic City’s struggling fortunes. Governor Chris Christie—who started a five-year push to turn the city around nearly three years ago—still projects that online gambling will bring in $1 billion in revenue by July.
“It’s absolutely a pivotal year because we need to make continued progress in Atlantic City or we’re going to need to start considering alternatives,” Christie said at a recent news conference
Still, most analysts put the potential revenue closer to $200 to $400 million. A recent study by California-based Eilers Research outs the figure at about $225 million once the industry “matures.”
The state will release its first report on online revenue later this month.
