Advertising is a crucial part of every business strategy, especially in the highly competitive iGaming sector. And with advertising regulations becoming stricter year after year, gambling brands have to be extremely careful and creative at the same time when promoting their services. Casino, poker, and sportsbook brands showcase their ingenuity in numerous ad campaigns, some of which are outright hilarious.
During the last years, iGaming brands have released so many funny commercials that it was hard to choose just five to make this list.
Fan Duel: Big Game Party
The 2020 commercial from the American betting company FanDuel is one of the newest gambling ads on this list. The sportsbook brand launched the ad to promote a special Super Bowl offer. The ad features a sports fan who hosts an unusual party at his house. He filled his house party with various traps from trip hazards on the stairs to snakes in the toilet. According to the host, if sports betting has removed risk from the world, he has to add it back in. The commercial aired on TV and social media.
Paddy Power Bingo: Husband Removal
The Irish sportsbook brand Paddy Power is known for its controversial yet eye-catching ads. The 2013 promo campaign, titled Husband Removal, was one of their most hilarious campaigns. At the time, Paddy Power offered a complimentary spouse removal to anyone participating in their “£20 free play” promo. Women even could pick where their husbands should go instead. For example, to a dinner with in-laws.
The promo video features a woman writing a comment on Paddy Power’s Facebook page, complaining about her husband being in the way of playing a game of bingo with her girlfriends. So, the sportsbook sent a husband’s removal team to her house. Two guys tied the husband to the chair with duct tape and launched him at the back of a van with the other husbands.
Coral: Carly and Farley
This 2014 ad is a classic case of iGaming companies featuring celebrities in their commercials. The Gibraltar bookmaker Coral employed comedian Darren Farley and UFC model Carly Baker. The ad showed both stars as a Fish and Chip servers in a van, reeling in the best bets and offers to the clients. The ad went viral and was reshared across social media platforms.
Ladbrokes: Football Opinion Café
In 2007, the British sportsbook brand Ladbrokes created one of the most memorable gambling ads of all time. Even now, fifteen years later it is known as one of the funniest commercials to air on TV.
The video shows some of the biggest stars of football – Lee Dixon, Ally McCoist, Ian Wright, and Chris Kamara – dressed as the workmen, having a cup of coffee in a greasy diner. The fun part is that the footballers give a sarcastic comment on the tragic state of British football.
Ladbrokes: The Screaming Man
This British bookmaker made it to our list for the second time, all thanks to its insane “screaming man” advert with Milan commentator Tiziano Crudeli. What looks like a typical health product commercial at a first glance, is suddenly interrupted by Crudeli, screaming in Italian and holding a phone with betting odds in his hand. By the way, this is the second Ladbrokes ad to feature Chris Kamara. This time as a model for a fake shampoo.
Read more: Betting Affiliate Programs
