Online casinos are a large, growing market, and they’ve found an effective avenue for marketing by partnering with streamers and influencers from various spheres. As a result, if you’re an online personality, there’s a high likelihood you’ll be offered a sponsorship from an iGaming brand at some point. And because the industry is so lucrative, the partnership deals can be pretty tempting.
Before you rush to accept an offer, there are a few things to know about and check up on. So, here’s the lowdown on the main points that will help you land an online casino sponsor without any potential mishaps occurring.
Platform Policy Limits
First, it’s worth noting that streaming platform rules around gambling have tightened significantly in recent years. For instance, Twitch prohibits the streaming of iGaming activities that aren’t licensed and regulated in jurisdictions that offer adequate player protections, such as the US and Canada. So, while you can happily play this casino’s online offering and stream the action without repercussions, doing so using an alternative platform that’s not properly registered in the relevant places might cause the streaming service to take action, up to and including channel bans.
As a basic due diligence check, you need to make sure the specific casino site you are promoting is permitted on the exact platform you plan to stream on. Even YouTube has firm policy limits in place, not only in terms of the type of content you can stream, but also in terms of the promo codes and affiliate links you can include in things like video descriptions.
Legal Disclosures
Tight regulations exist for all sorts of streamer sponsorship deals, and they’re at their strictest when the brand behind the promo package is involved in iGaming. For instance, both the US and the UK have guidelines that require streamers to clearly and conspicuously disclose the paid sponsorship both verbally and visually, so that viewers know you’re being paid to promote a product or service. Hiding that you are being paid to play is illegal.
Geographical restrictions also apply, so if your audience includes viewers in regions where online gambling or offshore casinos are illegal, you could be hit by regulatory action and fines. Then there are age restrictions, as you are both legally and ethically required to enforce mature content settings on your streams and social channels to prevent marketing gambling products to minors under the age of 18.
Play Transparency
Streamers who sign online casino sponsorship deals are often expected to play the games a platform offers as part of this agreement. That’s fine in principle, but can get into murky territory if you ignore the fact that an operator might provide you with what is effectively ‘free’ money to wager on its site, rather than having to risk your own cash in games of chance. So, if you are playing with provided funds, you must be transparent, as misrepresenting this money as personal losses or wins deceives your audience.
Finally, think about whether your choice to be sponsored by an online casino aligns with your brand as a streamer and the expectations of your audience. If you’re still confident that this is a good move, there’s no harm in proceeding.