PokerStars Casino, the online casino vertical of the popular card room, launched on Monday its first-ever TV advertisement. The ad will be played on digital stations and video advertising displays around the UK.
Simplistic but in a cutting-edge manner, the 30-second clip showcases player-favorite games at PokerStars Casino, with slots, roulette, and blackjack being few of those, to the general public for the very first time since PokerStars launched casino offering in 2014.
Over the past two years, the online card room has focused on introducing its casino games to existing poker players. According to PokerStars’ latest report, the brand currently has a cumulative customer base of over 105 million. Launching a TV ad, the poker room seems to have directed its attention to the mainstream market.
Commenting on the announcement, PokerStars Director Sam Hobcraft said that PokerStars Casino “has grown immensely” since going live two years ago and that it was the right time to publicize the product to a wider audience.
As mentioned above, PokerStars Casino went live in 2014. The popular poker brand debuted a casino tab on its Spanish website, adding both play-money and real-money roulette and baccarat. An Italian launch followed shortly after. PokerStars Casino was then introduced to UK players.
The online poker room has clearly been satisfied with the performance of its non-poker products as the casino tab was eventually added to its .com and .eu websites.
PokerStars said in a Monday statement that the TV ad was the first stage in its strategy to grow its online casino’s footprint. Apart from the UK, the brand is set to promote its casino offering in other core markets, as well.
The choice of UK as the place where the online gambling operator launched its first casino-focused ad was not an arbitrary one. TV advertising has proved to be an extremely effective means for promoting this type of offering to UK customers. A recent report by The Guardian showed that UK-facing operators have invested around £500 million in advertising campaigns since 2012. A total of £118.5 million was spent on gambling TV ads in 2015, up significantly from £81.2 million in 2012.
