WynnBet, the interactive gaming unit of Wynn Resorts, announced that it would cut back on its traditional advertising marketing spend as it switched to new marketing strategies. WynnBet’s line-up of celebrities for its advertisements included Ben Affleck, Lupe Lopez, and Shaquille O’Neal.

The time to move away from expensive celebrity-driven advertising is on the cards, announced Vincent Zahn, the Treasurer and Wynn Resorts Senior VP, early this week.

Zahn shared his views before the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) as a part of the review process by the panel to consider the sports betting operators’ delayed public offering application.

Unreasonable advertising costs

According to Zahn at Wynn Interactive, the unit handling the online sports betting offerings as part of the interactive gaming division will switch to affiliate customer acquisition strategy. This move away from the traditional marketing approach was necessitated due to continued and aggressive advertising marketing. In addition, the overloading of emerging gaming verticals and sports betting, iGaming products were incurring ‘irrational costs’ during the customer acquisition process.

Meanwhile, the affiliate marketing approach offers better scope for its sports betting operations in nine states– “Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, and Virginia.”

Need for Affiliate Marketing

According to this online sports betting operator, Affiliate marketing is a concept that is ideal for an online website. It is highly profitable for marketing and promoting the company’s products as it allows user clicks to be converted for purchases. In addition, the affiliate is also paid a commission which further builds a comfortable sales funnel for all stakeholders.

The critical role of affiliate marketing in the interactive gaming industry is that it helped cut down significantly the spending on customer acquisition.

Saving capital

The progress to this form of new marketing for Wynn Interactive has been very profitable as it led to record customer acquisition in 2021. The total budget for advertising spending has dropped from $100 million in Q3 to $80 million in Q4. By March of 2022, it hopes to reduce the spending by $40 million.