Gambling Ads Gobble Up 10% of Swedish TV Advertising

Gambling operators gobbled up a whopping 10 percent of all Swedish television advertising in the first half of 2016.
While that might be cause for alarm in most countries, but a recent slump in overall media buys in the country has muted any criticism of the gambling boom.
According to a report from Swedish media consultants Mediavision, as reported on by Telecompaper.com (subscription required), gambling ad buys accounted for only 3 percent of ad space last year at this time. Those ads were purchased by 31 different companies, including six operators who weren’t advertising in the market last year.
In fact, international gambling operators account for the bulk of the advertising uptick. As of this writing, domestic operators account for a mere 25 percent of gambling ads on Swedish airwaves. All told, international gambling operators are outpacing their domestic counterparts by a wide margin in both ad budgets, and revenue growth.
This new wave of gambling ads are providing a much-needed shot in the arm to the Swedish television industry, which is suffering a bit of a slump. According to the report, total Swedish ad buys are down $118 million (USD) over last year at this time.
The danger for Swedish operators is giving Swedish media too much of a good thing, as has been the case in Australia. Television viewers, and gambling critics, have a limited tolerance for gambling ads and when they think the industry is overdoing it, they’re not shy about applying the brakes through regulatory action (again, this is definitely the case in Australia.)
For now, Swedish media companies are more than happy to take money from the gambling industry.
(Photo Courtesy of NYPhotographic.com)