Mukesh Sharma's Page

Last quarter, I reviewed campaign data from over forty advertisers running gaming offers across different geos. One pattern stood out immediately: most weren't failing because of bad creatives or weak offers. They were bleeding budget on the wrong traffic sources. A sportsbook advertiser in tier-two Europe was spending heavily on display banners while their actual conversions came almost entirely from native placements. Another casino brand kept pouring money into pop traffic that brought…

There's a shift happening in how gambling brands acquire users, and it doesn't involve flashy banners or aggressive pop-ups. More advertisers are moving their budgets toward platforms where the audience doesn't feel sold to immediately. That environment is native advertising, and for iGaming, it's becoming less of an experiment and more of a standard channel.

The reason is simple. People don't engage with ads that scream "casino" the moment they land on a blog or news site. But they…