Some platforms and strategies are used to reach potential bettors, although these often operate in legally grey areas or target sports gambling ads markets. Here are some platforms and strategies that have been employed, keeping in mind the legal landscape in India:
Digital Platforms:
- Surrogate Advertising: This involves promoting products or services seemingly unrelated to betting but using brand names, logos, or imagery strongly associated with betting platforms. This aims to build brand recognition indirectly. For example, a betting company might sponsor a sports news website or a clothing line with a similar brand name.
- Offshore Betting Platforms: Many online betting platforms based outside India continue to target Indian users. Their advertising might be seen on international sports websites or through social media using cloaking techniques to bypass local restrictions.
- Social Media Platforms: While direct gambling ads are often restricted, betting platforms might use social media for content marketing, engagement, and building communities around sports. Influencers who are not directly promoting betting but are associated with sports might also be part of indirect marketing efforts.
- Content Platforms (with caution): Some sports news websites or OTT platforms might inadvertently or indirectly host betting-related content or ads, sometimes through programmatic advertising networks where filtering might not be entirely effective. However, these platforms face scrutiny and potential penalties if they are found to be promoting illegal activities.
- Affiliate Marketing: Partnerships with sports-related websites or influencers who provide content and include links to betting platforms (often offshore) can be a way to reach potential bettors.
Advertising Networks:
Some advertising networks globally cater to the gambling and iGaming industry, but their use for the Indian market is severely restricted due to the legal framework. Examples of such networks (as per search results) include:
- 7Search PPC
- Adsterra
- Adcash
- PropellerAds
- Clickadu
- Evadav
- RichAds
- Zeropark
These networks often have sophisticated targeting capabilities (geo-targeting, device targeting, etc.) and offer various ad formats like pop-unders, push notifications, and native ads. However, advertisers need to be extremely cautious about the legal implications of targeting Indian users with these platforms.
