State-Sponsored Gambling Advertising

Abstract: Gambling in Sweden is increasing and is a large issue for both individuals and the state. The largest actor on the Swedish market is the state-owned company Svenska Spel which offers gambling services online and with a monopoly runs casinos and physical slot machines. To promote their games, Svenska Spel advertises through multiple channels. Since 2019, on a monthly basis, Svenska Spel has had a share of the total advertising in the gambling market, i.e. a share of voice (SoV), of between 6.3 and 25,7 percent. Using an empirical research method, the thesis examines whether Svenska Spel's advertising spending influences gambling turnover at the market level. Using data from Kantar Sifo and Spelmyndigheten, trends are observed and correlation and regression tests of Svenska Spel's SoV and the net turnover of Swedish gambling companies, which is a proxy for market level gambling spending, are conducted. The SoV of Svenska Spel is found to have a correlation of 0.301 with the Net-turnover and the regression analysis implies that a one percentage point increase in Svenska Spel's SoV increases net- turnover in the market by 0.65%. The correlation and effect is stronger when conducting this test using a SoV variable that lag net-turnover by one month. The thesis concludes that Svenska Spel's advertising spending influences spending on the gambling market positively and discusses implications of the findings for Swedish society, the gambling industry and the research area of gambling advertising at large. As it does not cover why this effect occurs, it aims to inspire further research on the causes of the observed effect and what the total effects for society are. In doing so it hopes to contribute novel and useful insights to the general debate on whether Svenska Spel and its advertisements are net-positive for Swedish society.