AppsFlyer released its latest data trends report providing insights into how companies spend their money to market sports betting and casino apps.
The downloading of leisure apps, which include casino and sports betting products, grew substantially in 2024. Last year, casino apps saw an 102% increase in downloads year-over-year while online sports betting apps reported a 93% uptick compared to 2023.
Finance apps, like Robinhood, saw a 61% year-over-year increase in ad spend.
Collectively, global app user acquisition ad spending grew by 5% in 2024 to $65 billion.
“Last year was a decisive year for the app economy, as the data shows not just spend increases, but continued maturity and nimble creativity from marketers,” said AppsFlyer President and General Manager Brian Quinn. “In 2025, we expect further integration of gaming and non-gaming sectors, refined monetization strategies, and greater adoption of owned media technologies.”
Despite the increased interest in gambling-related apps in 2024, companies reported slow ad spend growth. In 2024, casual games saw a 3% year-over-year uptick in ad spend bringing their market share to 64% for the year. By comparison, ad spending on hypercasual games remained flat in 2024 while mid-core categories declined by 21%.
Casino games also took a step back with ad spending declining by 12% year-over-year.
Australia saw the largest increase in gaming-related ad spend in 2024 with a roughly 7% uptick in spending while the U.S. posted a near 7% decline in ad spend. France and Japan posted the largest drops in ad spend with 14% and 23% declines, respectively.
In its 2024 report, AppsFlyer used a data sample of 35,000 apps and 140 billion app installs. The analytics platform also used 53 billion remarketing conversions.
