Amaya Gaming’s PokerStars brand has launched its first TV campaign promoting the world’s top poker site’s casino vertical.
Amaya first launched a PokerStars casino product via its Spanish-licensed site in September 2014. Italy and the UK soon followed, after which the product was rolled out to the .com platform in jurisdictions where online casino was permitted. But the company had shied away from direct casino marketing, preferring to initially rely on cross-sell from its poker base.
That all changed on Monday, as PokerStars Casino launched its first ever TV campaign, although the spots (viewable below) are for the moment only appearing in the UK market, and only on digital stations and video display advertising.
During last week’s Q3 earnings call, Amaya revealed that its casino users had risen 40% year-on-year to 486k, still a drop in the bucket compared to PokerStars’ 105m cumulative customer base. The combined share of casino and sportsbook revenue accounted for 27% of Amaya’s overall revenue, up from 19% in the same period last year.
The PokerStars casino product is currently available to about 64% of the site’s poker players, and the company conceded that further geographical expansion is limited by regulatory reality. As such, the company views the time is finally right – and the product is finally ready – to start actively pimping their casino games to the broader online casino market.
Sam Hobcraft, Amaya’s director of casino, called PokerStars casino product “a well-kept secret” among the site’s poker players and the time was right to pitch to a wide mainstream market. Hobcraft said the company was “extremely proud of our TV advert and are looking forward to our big UK launch.”
PokerStars casino proved popular in its original market launches, scoring high market shares in Spain and Italy. In addition to the new marketing campaign, the company plans to roll out new cross-vertical VIP and loyalty programs in Q2 2017
