Do not let social media terms of service stop you from promoting sports betting, gambling, or other adult content.
Through careful consideration, trial and error, and being mindful of the culture of sports and sports betting, I successfully ran ads and created engaging content about sports betting while adhering to strict social media terms of service. The result? A compliant yet effective campaign that expanded reach, increased engagement, and boosted followers for my sports betting client.
Client Introduction
SharpStakes, a sports betting tech company, sought to promote its services and engage its audience on social media. However, strict terms of service around gambling-related content on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok made it challenging to run ads, create content, and maintain compliance.
Problem, Consequences, & Hesitations
The major challenge was navigating the complex advertising rules and content restrictions for gambling-related content, or other adult-related content such as adult films, cannabis, and alcohol:
Ad Rejections: Ads often violate platform policies, leading to wasted time, money, and effort.
Risk of Account Suspension: Any misstep in compliance could result in the account being flagged or banned.
Audience Mismatch: Generic approaches risked missing the target audience entirely, reducing ROI.
My client hesitated to invest in social media, fearing wasted resources due to strict regulations.
Solution
I developed a strategy to work within the guidelines while achieving the desired results:
Understanding Platform Policies: Conducted a deep dive into terms of service for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, focusing on rules for gambling-related ads and content.
Creative Messaging: Shifted the focus from gambling promotion to sports entertainment and betting culture, framing SharpStakes as a hub for fun, education, and sports culture. These posts wouldn’t tell people to bet but would be memes about the feeling of a big betting win or loss, or how your 5-leg parlay will turn your $2 into $5 billion. These shifted away from direct action, to showing we are part of a culture and community. Note though, that we were still allowed to use words like “bet”, but we can’t ask people to bet.
Engaging Organic Content: Produced educational posts, humorous memes, and relatable sports content to build an audience organically without reliance on paid ads. This content would take nods at people in the culture who were in the know, but would never outright say things about gambling or betting.
Successful Organic Posts Became Ads: We’d then use our successful content to run ads, either to build followers or to run them to the client’s Website.
Ad Approval Tactics: Used compliant language, avoided direct mentions of asking people to bet and gamble, and incorporated disclaimers to ensure ads were policy-friendly. In this stage, absolutely NO trigger words can be used. Words such as, “Bet, Gamble, Parlay”, are STRICTLY off the table.
Use Either Original Creative Ads Or Already Successful Organic Content To Create Ads: With this framework, we were able to find a balance between creative for the ads, and boosting successful organic creative to be used as ads. As long as you follow the rules in point number #5, anything can work.
Results & Benefits
This strategic approach delivered impressive outcomes:
High Ad Approval Rates: Overcame compliance hurdles to successfully run ads that reached the target audience. Reaching sports watchers, and using jargon that only sports bettors within the betting community would understand.
Account Growth: Increased followers by over +2500 in six months through engaging, compliant content. Content that highlighted the culture of sports betting, but never explicitly talked about gambling/betting.
Improved Engagement: Higher interaction rates across posts due to a focus on relatable and entertaining content.
Risk Mitigation: Maintained full compliance with platform policies, avoiding penalties or bans.
This success demonstrated that it’s possible to navigate strict advertising regulations while achieving meaningful results in a challenging industry.
Conclusion & CTA
This case shows how understanding platform rules and focusing on creative, compliant strategies can unlock success—even in industries with significant advertising restrictions.
🎯📈 Ready to overcome social media challenges and achieve your marketing goals? Let’s create a strategy tailored for your industry—contact me today!