Betting Creatives That Actually Work

Written June 16, 2025 by

Betting Creatives That Actually Work

Betting is a niche with the fan’s excitement at its core. What the final score will be? Is your forecast correct? Many fans have tried their luck placing bets – some succeeded, others didn’t. But in both cases, it all started with an ad that attracted and convinced them to place a bet.

What do we know about betting ads? They’re everywhere! You can see betting banners during sports matches, references inside game forecasts on social media, on TV in between the event, and, of course, different ads promoted by ad networks. Today, we’ll look at the psychology behind effective interaction with users and see some of the most engaging references picked by our QA department.

Psychology behind Betting Offers

What sets a good creative apart from a bad one? No, it’s not just about compelling design. Though it’s also highly important, many advertisers forget about audience research’s significant impact.

One way to learn more about what triggers your audience is to get into recent studies about the influence of betting on internet users. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do next.

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Sports Betting&Advertising: A Study of Their Influence on Young Spaniards

As an example, we decided to take a study by the University of Jaume I-Castellon and others, where authors uncover modern behavioral patterns among Spaniard potential players, as well as techniques and manipulations used by companies to get users involved in betting activities.

They classified ads with emotional triggers (such as welcome bonuses) as particularly effective for engaging the audience. Another advertising hook that works greatly is a promise of prize. On the other hand, the presence of celebrities and bright colors in designs doesn’t attract users as well as previous methods. The graph below shows a full distribution of the most effective elements of sports betting advertising.

 Most effective elements of sports betting advertising
Most effective elements of sports betting advertising

Another key finding is that most new players get to know about the betting company from their friends. This is an example of the specifics of the industry in this region. Therefore, if you run a related ad campaign, it might be a good idea to experiment with titles and add CTA: “All your friends are already here!”.

As said earlier, each region has its specifics and top-performing types of creatives. In our research, we narrowed down all the possible kinds of visuals to the Top 4, which are highly likely to convert targeting any GEO. These are:

  1. Bonuses and Promotional Ads
  2. Time-Sensitive Offer Ads
  3. Seasonal and Event Based Ads
  4. Clients expertise in the game

Further, we will break down each of them in more details, exploring the emotional triggers that advertisers use to trap potential clients, and review some of the best-converting creatives on our ad platform.

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  • Targeting from GEOs to keywords and interests
  • Direct traffic sources
  • Fully-managed service
  • Personal manager
  • Postback tracking

Bonuses and Promotional Ads

These are the most popular and probably the most effective way to convince a user to sign up and top up his deposit. What makes it so appealing?

  • Users immediately understand what’s in it for them;
  • Creates a perception that the deal is highly beneficial with no risk of losing money;
  • The big CTA button makes it easy to follow to the next step.

We collected a few highly clickable examples for you:

Betting ads example
Betting ads example
Betting ads example
Betting ads example

How can you take such creatives to the next level?

  • Emerging over time countdown timer to create more urgency to the deal;
  • Highlight the USP of your offer (e.g., no deposit is required).

Time-Sensitive Offer Ads

“You have only 3 minutes to finish this article and be the first to monetize new knowledge with HilltopAds!”. Joking! Of course, there’s no hurry, and you should take as long as you need. But you definitely felt the urge to wrap up the theory and put your skills to use right away. And that’s exactly how such ads hook the audience.

What makes this creative so effective:

  • A sense of urgency combined with clear benefits leads to immediate action;
  • Users feel that they might miss a unique opportunity on a valuable offer if they don’t act fast.
Betting ads example
Betting ads example

Seasonal and Event Based Ads

Did you watch the Super Bowl this year? But you, as well as millions of other users, must have heard about the buzz around this event. That’s the core of such marketing campaigns—they leverage what everyone is already talking about and move attention toward their offer.

Why such visuals work so well:

  • Event hype = your hype: Redirect user’s interest from the event to your ads offer.
  • Such ads create a limited-time opportunity even without adding special countdowns: people know they must act before the game begins.
  • Users are already feeling emotional and searching for forecasts to predict the game’s results. The ad just helps them take a small step forward, leverage their excitement, and place a bet.
Betting ads example

You might be skeptical about an unknown betting company, but that hesitation can easily fade when you see familiar faces—especially if you’re a loyal fan who respects the opinion of well-known players. These creatives can not be made as still banners, but video ads as well.

Conclusion

As you can see, crafting creatives is not a rocket science, but there are some principles and tendencies that you must be aware of. Surely, one article isn’t enough to cover every aspect of betting marketing.

This is why we have another insightful guide on how to build effective advertising strategy that goes together with a calendar of popular sports events of 2025. So, if betting is not just something you are trying out, but your mastery field, then you want to read this article too.

And if you feel ready to put what you’ve learned into practice, follow the link to sign up (in case you haven’t done so yet), and bet on success with HilltopAds!