From Michael Phelps to Paris Hilton, the list of athletes and celebrities endorsing social and sweepstakes gaming sites is growing. And it seems to be working out well for the brands, especially Virtual Gaming Worlds (VGW).
A financial report for VGW, parent company of Chumba Casino, LuckyLand Slots, and Global Poker, reported marketing spend of $275 million in 2024, up from $237 million the previous year. The aggressive marketing appears to be paying off, with the company reporting just over $4 billion in revenue in 2024, around a 30% YoY increase on the $3.1 billion revenue in 2023.
Celebrity endorsements are traditionally a powerful marketing tool to help lend credibility to a product and drive demand and revenue. The social gaming sites are no different in that respect. While some regulated gaming industry stakeholders are taking issue with this practice, it hasn’t stopped the trend from picking up steam in the last few years.
Details of the partnerships
The recent trend has seen a number of heavy hitters in the social gaming space land some big fish for endorsement deals.
Last fall, VGW announced a partnership with world champion Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps to star in their Global Poker 2023 Celebrity Challenge marketing campaign. Joining Phelps in that campaign for heads-up poker matches and various advertisements were DJ Khaled and NBA stars Paul George and Karl-Anthony Towns.
In August 2024, VGW announced an expanded partnership with Phelps, who has become the main celebrity face of the Global Poker brand. The sweeps operator promised at that time “a range of new and exciting marketing initiatives” around the most-decorated Olympian of all time.
VGW has since expanded the Celebrity Challenge campaign to include initiatives around Formula 1 racing events like the Las Vegas Grand Prix and other major races. Ahead of the Grand Prix F1 race in Austin, Texas, French driver Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari appeared in a campaign called “Raise your game” that highlighted connections between racing and poker.
The site held its own Grand Prix Turbo Series: Las Vegas Edition, and even debuted a “Global Poker Table Talk” special featuring heads-up poker matches involving Phelps, Scuderia Ferrari drivers Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Antonio Esfandiari.
Mats Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer at VGW, said in a press release:
“Mr. Phelps is not only an exceptional athlete and poker player, but he brings this great energy and aligns with the Global Poker brand incredibly well. He already has a strong following and we expect this partnership to add to that to truly take the Global Poker brand from strength to strength.”
Other major celebrity deals with social casinos
For their Chumba Casino product, VGW has enlisted popular TV host Ryan Seacrest to promote social gameplay. The following is an example of a promo that appeared on Seacrest’s personal IG account in September:
One more game of @chumba.casino and then we’ll go for a walk, Georgia #ad
Sponsored by Chumba Casino.
No Purchase Necessary.
VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. See T&Cs. 18+
Another major sweeps casino brand, WOW Vegas, enlisted Paris Hilton as a celebrity ambassador. She began promoting the casino powered by MW Services Limited on Instagram in Feb. 2024: “WOW Vegas is totally slaying with hundreds of amazing slot games! Join me today on WOW Vegas and start #sliving the Vegas life.”
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Campaign critics
Celebrity endorsement deals for products, including in the gaming industry, are nothing new. But some regulated gaming professionals have criticized such partnerships and more generally, the way in which the products are being marketed.
At a recent gaming legislators conference, NCLGS, two vocal opponents of sweepstakes gaming, Tres York and Howard Glaser, denounced some of the tactics used in sweeps casino advertising.
Additionally, a number of lawsuits have been levied against specific sweeps gaming operators. One such class action lawsuit filed in Georgia accused VGW of promoting a form of illegal gambling through targeted ads and celebrity endorsements “to create a veneer of legitimacy – exactly like famous illegal gambling sites Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars used to do before those sites were shut down in the United States.”
As long as the legal grounds for social and sweepstakes gaming remain in question, it’s hard to imagine any of these deals being outlawed by a legislative or enforcement agency.
That said, as a recent Daily Mail article pointed out, the endorsements of social gaming sites by professional athletes, especially those in the NBA, could pose an issue that league officials may take action to halt. Considering the NBA partners with regulated sports gambling sites FanDuel and DraftKings, it’s possible the league could decide to limit player advertising of gaming sites that don’t fall into the regulated gambling industry category.