Over the last few years, online gambling has been delivering a tremendous lift to local media and it has quickly developed into a strong category for Local TV and Radio in particular. With the potential of more states, such as California coming on board in the next couple of years, this new vertical is poised to deliver profitable advertising revenue opportunities. Here’s a look at key parts of our online gambling forecast.
This summer, working with data from Nielsen Ad Intel Service, BIA released its latest ad spend estimate for local online gambling at $1.8 billion in 2022. Over the next four years, we see potential for that amount to almost double to $3.2 billion by 2026, which is a sizable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 16%. That is an incredible amount of money to consider for local advertising, especially since this vertical didn’t exist just a few years ago.
For local television stations, BIA expects online gambling advertising on TV over-the-air (OTA) to reach over $748 million in 2022. With a 42.6 percent share of wallet in 2022, TV OTA easily controls the largest share of Online Gambling spending and we forecast it to remain in the top position through 2026. A much smaller portion of television dollars, TV Digital will maintain a share of wallet of around 1.5 percent, but it adds to local TV’s dominance in the online gambling category.
Local radio is also a very strong advertising channel choice for online gambling, especially on local sports formatted radio stations that offer a rich source of potential sports betting gamblers. Currently in 2022 Radio OTA’s share of wallet is around 8 percent and we estimate it will maintain this level through the end of BIA’s forecast in 2026. Online gambling advertising spend will eclipse $164 million on local radio (OTA + Digital) in 2022.
Other advertising platforms also benefit from online gambling advertising. The PC or Laptop, Mobile and Cable TV platforms will each maintain about a 10% share of the market. The targetability of PC or Laptop and Mobile, and the substantial amount of sports programming on local cable systems, allows these media channels to maintain a strong position in this market.
Now, it’s worth noting that the second quarter of 2022 saw a slight downturn in the amount of online gambling spending, but this follows the relative seasonality of this vertical and thus we expect it to pick back up as the NFL gets rolling in the end of 3Q and through 4Q 2022.
Summing up, online gambling has become a strong advertising vertical at a time when local media channels are all looking to capitalize on opportunities to perhaps fill in where other categories have dropped off. Timing couldn’t be better.
For more on BIA’s online gambling forecast and a forecast of ad spending by all 210 local TV markets across 16 different media channels, BIA’s Online Gambling Forecast is available for purchase. Click here for details. BIA ADVantage clients can login and download the full forecast in the platform now.
