Promoting Gambling ads in South Africa: best practices

With a GGR of R34.43 billion in 2022, South Africa is one of the juiciest GEOs for marketers. Especially taking into account the fact that this number grew by 48% since 2021 according to the National Gambling Board.

We collected all the latest data on Gambling launches in the region, don’t miss it.

South Africa vs Gambling: why so profitable?

There are many lucrative countries for the promotion of Gambling, though it’s always hard to find something new yet money-making.

In this case South Africa is a perfect bet for a webmaster!

Those are not just empty words, they’re backed with the latest statistics:

• Expanding niche. Statista says that the South African market is expected to reach the volume of US$30.05m by 2027. All in all, Gambling niche in the region is a great contributor to the overall African economy, the fact speaks for itself.
  
• The nation of gamblers. It’s not just our presumption, according to social polls at least one in ten citizens of South Africa has tried Gambling to entertain themselves. What’s more, engagement rate of users is quite high, it can reach up to 50%.
  
• Impressive ad revenue. In 2022 only, the online casino promotion revenue was about $3.9 millions. Taking into account the rapid growth of the market, the amount will only grow, so any marketer can take a piece of this huge pie!
  
• Mobile devices penetration. In-app purchases of online casino games have reached about $16.7 million dollars in 2022, while the amount of downloads of Gambling-related content was 8.29 millions. 

South African Gambler: overall portrait

To get the full understanding of a successful launch in any country, it’s crucial to know the target audience. We’ve collected the latest stats on a typical gambler in South Africa by main metrics.

Typical South African Gambler

Age: from 18 to 35, with a significant percentage being under the age of 25.
Gender: mostly male, around 70% of players
Average income: R10,000 per month
Interests: lottery, slots, sports betting, with a preference of more simplified, fast games.
User behavior: not likely to spend huge amounts of money in just one game, they like to try different slots and then choose, enjoy the diversity of the market. 
Devices preference: mobile-oriented market.

Note: the region is very diverse in terms of socio-economic status, so we provided you with a very summarized data on players. Make sure to target various types of audience to find the one that suits your offer.

Trends of online casino promotion in ZA

If you wish to get the highest results when promoting Gambling ads in 2023, it’s crucial to be aware of the latest trends on a specific GEO. There are several aspects of launching campaigns in South Africa that we’d like to highlight. 

Gambling brands to test in South Africa

We’ve collected the latest info on the most popular online casinos in South Africa in 2023. However, you can test other brands as well if the offer’s conditions are suitable for you.

Top casino brands in ZA for 2023:

• Springbok Casino
• Betway
• Yebo Casino
• PlayOJO Casino
• Sunbet
• Thunderbolt 
• Cloudbet

Best traffic sources for casino advertising

It’s no use arguing that social media channels are really popular when it comes to Gambling ads in South Africa, Facebook and Instagram are the most popular ones. One can also test Google ads for the bundle, it’s also very widespread among marketers. 

The good news is that there are sources of traffic that have literally no restrictions on creatives — push, pop and direct click ads. They’re dead easy to set up, for direct click and pop traffic a marketer just needs a link to the landing page, and that’s it.

Volumes of traffic at RichAds for ZAF in 2024:

Push ads can also be implemented easily, and have shown efficiency for Gambling for many years at RichAds and other ad platforms, for 2022 all the three formats converted best of all for the vertical.

Creatives approach for ZA

When it comes to ad creatives for gambling, there are a few common themes that tend to resonate with South African audiences. 

For example, ads that emphasize:

• the excitement and thrill of betting on sports or playing casino games.

• potential for big wins or jackpots that can be enticing to gamblers.
  

• relevant bonuses that are given to new users and available only today or only within a specific time-limit.

How to launch Gambling ads in ZA: 5 pro tips

We’ve collected several tips that will assist you in launching a successful casino campaign in South Africa. Those are universal advice to boost revenue of any marketer:

1. Apply at least 5-10 creatives per campaign.
   This is especially important for a new region to find the best approach and stick to it. If it’s hard for you to make them, you can always ask a manager to prepare them for you for free.
   
2. Test several traffic sources at once.
   The point is similar to the previous one, as testing multiple ways is crucial for better understanding of a new GEO. To simplify the process, Multiformat feature can be used.
   
3. Constantly optimize your campaigns.
   There are many ways to do it, starting from simple blacklisting of irrelevant sources to automating the process via Target CPA, Performance Mode and Automated Rules.
   
4. Stick only to Premium sources.
   This way you’ll get only the most converting casino traffic, they’re carefully tested and selected in advance. Then it’s possible to scale with Standard, Remnant and New sources to get even more traffic.
   
5. Try New Subscribers.
   If you wish to get the freshest users that haven’t yet seen push notifications and aren’t familiar with the format, try this feature along with a standard campaign. This way you’ll get x2 volumes of traffic and more conversions.

Now you know how to get the most out of Gambling+South Africa combination, go ahead and start a campaign to reap the fruit! 

What is RichAds?
🔝 Push and pop ads,
🔼 Domain redirect traffic,
🔝 CPM for domain ads starts from $ 1.5,
⏫ CPC for push ads starts from $ 0.003,
🔼 CPM for pops — from $0.5 in Tier 3, $1 in Tier 1,
⏫ large volumes of available traffic in more than 200 goes.