Starting this Monday, Google has officially updated its gambling and gaming advertising policy, showing the red card to horse racing betting alliance websites and comparison platforms within the United States. This means that third-party promoters who rely on Google ads to drive traffic to online horse racing platforms are suddenly facing a situation where their traffic supply is cut off.
Alliance merchant advertising is completely blocked, except for licensed operators
According to the new rules, Google Ads will prohibit the promotion of online horse racing content from aggregators, horse racing tips platforms, and other third-party alliances. Google has revoked the certification qualifications of all horse racing aggregators and simply no longer accepts new certification applications. Thus, many alliance websites have had their paid traffic channels directly "cut off."
However, the policy is not one-size-fits-all. For operators holding a legal horse racing betting license within a US state, as long as they comply with responsible gambling guidelines and obtain certification, they can still advertise on Google. This move by Google is clearly intended to differentiate high-risk, alliance-driven promotional activities from regular licensed operators, making the advertising environment more transparent and reliable.
The industry impact is profound, and alliance merchants need to find new paths
For many horse racing alliance merchants who depend on Google ads for survival, this is undoubtedly a heavy blow. Their business models may need to be completely reshaped, either turning to search engine optimization to obtain natural traffic or seeking opportunities in jurisdictions with more lenient advertising regulations. It can be foreseen that the market structure will change as a result, the voice of licensed operators may increase, and the living space for small alliance merchants will be squeezed.
This adjustment is not an isolated event. In fact, Google has been tightening up on gambling-related ads since the beginning of this year. As early as February this year, it had already raised the document review standards for licensed advertisers and strengthened the monitoring of alliance content. This ban targeting horse racing alliances is another step in its ongoing efforts to clean up high-risk ads and address concerns about misleading marketing in the industry.
Global regulatory tightening, tech giants under pressure
Google's actions also echo the global regulatory trend. In addition to the United States, Google has recently extended the ban on advertisements for offline gambling venues to 42 countries including Algeria, Egypt, and Morocco, to comply with local regulations. At the same time, federal scrutiny of gambling advertisements within the US is also intensifying. For example, a federal judge in California recently ruled against Apple, Google, Meta, and other tech giants for allegedly promoting illegal gambling, further increasing the pressure on these platforms to strictly review advertisements.
For industry practitioners, it is crucial to keep up with such platform policies and regulatory dynamics. For more in-depth industry regulatory analysis, extended reading on the PASA official website is recommended.
————
This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leader" gambling industry news channel:https://t.me/pasa_news
Original deep gambling channel:https://t.me/gamblingdeep
Free data report: @pasa_research
PASA Matrix: @pasa002_bot
PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
