How to adapt ads for digitally native players

As the worlds of gaming and betting continue to merge and cross-fertilise; the profile of the player/fan is changing.

Both worlds share an instinct for excitement, challenge and reward, but come from different cultures.

Digital native 'gamers' inhabit a world of fast, interactive entertainment and expect betting to be just as engaging. It means that with some slots, players get a lot of their excitement from the act of playing the game - it's not all about the money.

I would argue that advertising in online betting has largely failed to keep pace with these changes or effectively reflect the sensibilities of these new-gen players. We still see the same tired tropes trotted out with gag-based humour and a catchy strapline.

Of course, we need to market responsibly and avoid glamourising or making betting look 'sexy'. But, at the moment, we have a lot of visual jokes and celeb endorsements reflecting a narrow view of what betting and winning looks like, executed by ad folk descended from the Don Draper school.

This approach is way out of date. There are so many layered, nuanced ways of talking to people that are not so reductionist as to rely on a punchline or a payoff. In the same way that there are so many gamified ways to place a bet with today's technology.

With an expanded creative toolkit, it's possible to speak to a broader demographic, engaging existing audiences and digital native players alike, and all while remaining compliant.

Imaginative advertising can break free from convention to better reflect the mindset of today's digitally savvy audiences - blurring the lines between mediums to express what play feels like - not just how it looks.

Players respond to advertising that visualises the emotion and energy of play, with attention-grabbing story arcs, high-speed effects and perspectives that surprise and entertain.

At Fluoro, we tried to achieve this in our creative partnership with Midnite, an industry-disruptive sports betting and casino platform based in the UK.

With our TV ad and social campaign, we put the player at the heart of the action, drawing on cues from music, gaming and modern culture, and mixing virtual and real-world elements to immerse the viewer.

The story sees a female protagonist pulled through a vortex and flying through a surreal 3D theme park, merging indoor and outdoor scenarios. She collects casino chips as she journeys through Midnite's gamified world, then she lands at a live roulette table with a croupier and wins.

For a long time, corporate strategists have been driving to simplify, simplify, simplify. There's a tendency to want to use real-life footage and a big pullback on wild creativity.

But this presents a great opportunity to break through with marketing that is more fantastical, yet still real and engaging.

When you trust the intelligence of the fans, you can create something that's distinctive enough to break through repressive algorithms that prioritise advertising budget and following size.

And when you have a strong brand message, and are cultivating a community around an amazing product, you can break away from tried-and-tested formulas and pull attention in a competitive market.

While the style and culture of gaming can inform advertising, it can't be thought of as a subculture anymore - it has certainly spread into the mainstream by this point.

According to a Dentsu gaming trend report for 2025, there are 3.4 billion gamers worldwide, and the amount of time spent gaming continues to rise, especially among Gen Z and Millennials.

The primary motivations are listed as (in order) relaxation, achievement, immersion, socialising and thrill-seeking. Gaming IPs are fuelling the transmedia boom, where the different forms of media converge.

Boundaries between entertainment, advertising, social, film and TV are dissolving everywhere you look in service to the storytelling and the cultural connection of fandom.

Advertising can move beyond 'real-world settings with the odd virtual feature', towards the merging of virtual and real-world elements through motion graphics, VFX, soundscapes and culturally relevant shots.

And as the gaming/gambling crossover continues to unfold, we should reflect this shift to excite both existing audiences and the new cohort of players.