The gambling industry is big; So big, in fact, that casinos and betting services have problems getting marketing done effectively. If you are based in mainland Europe you may have heard about the casino chain going by the name of “Casino 777”. They mainly use a “full-time” mascot in all their promotional material or advertisements. The person and actor they use for this is Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Other popular casinos and betting sites also make use of actors and other famous people. One of the main reasons is the fact that celebrities simply help promote a service better. Take a look for yourself on Spinsify, the UK’s leading platform when it comes to finding casinos.
Giving the gambling brand a face or “theme”
As mentioned earlier, gambling establishments like to put a face on their brand for two main reasons; They want to create this personal connection with the audience through a familiar face and the other main reason is that they want to portray a certain lifestyle through the face of their “mascot”. This is an extremely overused marketing strategy that you’ll find in almost every brand or product line.
Another reason brands commonly do this is the fact that it helps them encourage more loyalty with their target audience. The idea is that people are far more likely to trust their favourite celebrity’s advice, rather than a recommendation from the brand itself.
Celebrities are not camera shy
Now when you hire models or other people to do an advertisement, you might find that they are a little bit camera shy and need more preparation for the “role”. This can lead to the process taking very long and becoming increasingly expensive. Celebrities, on the other hand, are used to cameras, which makes it far more convenient to use them for this type of business promotion. This is what makes celebrities such an attractive choice for casinos and sportsbooks.
Actors are often in between movies or shoots
Actors don’t have work all the time making it perfect for them to do these “little” gigs on the side in between their other gigs. Actors lead a very busy and complicated life when it comes to their profession. Doing gigs and jobs like these gives them some time off every so often.
Also, shooting this type of promotional material is often quite low-effort for the actors, as they are used to far more complicated scripts and characters. Additionally, for these types of roles, they don’t need to study complicated lines, they don’t need to do stunts and they don’t need to make lifestyle changes like losing or gaining weight.