The Gaming & Gambling Earned Media Playbook 2026: Building Position Before the Market Opens

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The U.S. gambling industry has built enormous awareness over the past five years. What it has not built, in proportion to that spend, is credibility. 5W's Gaming Trust Index — the first annual study to systematically analyze marketing spend allocation and brand credibility outcomes across U.S. sports betting, online gaming, and land-based casino markets — documents a $3.9 billion spend misallocation that favors television and celebrity above every other channel, and leaves earned media, responsible gambling, and digital content infrastructure materially underfunded.

Television received 36% of the spend ($1.42 billion). Celebrity and athlete partnerships received 13% ($520 million). Earned media and PR received 2.3% ($90 million). Responsible gambling programs received 1.5% ($60 million). The two lowest-investment categories generate the highest documented return on brand credibility of any channel analyzed.

This playbook is built for the gaming operator who understands that the next 24 months of state legalization — New York, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia for online gaming, and continued sports betting expansion — will be won not on advertising budget at launch, but on earned media presence, regulatory credibility, and brand trust built before the market opens.

FROM RONN TOROSSIAN, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN OF 5W

"The U.S. gambling industry has spent five years and billions of dollars buying awareness. What it has not bought, and cannot buy with the same allocation, is credibility. The operators that win the next twenty-four months of state legalization will not be the ones with the biggest television budget at launch. They will be the ones who built earned media presence, regulatory standing, and responsible gambling credibility in the eighteen months before the market opened. AI search is now the gatekeeper for how regulators, investors, journalists, and consumers form a view of every public gaming operator on Earth. The brands that treat that as the central communications shift of the decade — not a side project — will own the next five years of this industry. The ones that don't will spend that time explaining themselves to people who have stopped accepting the explanation."

KEY STATS

$3.9B — U.S. gambling marketing spend analyzed in the Gaming Trust Index, 2025

2.3% — Share of gambling marketing spend going to earned media and PR

$520M — 2025 celebrity partnership spend — 9x the responsible gambling investment

$60M — 2025 responsible gambling investment across the industry

$12.8B — 2025 U.S. online gaming GGR across seven legal states

47,000+ — Articles analyzed in the Gaming Trust Index

36% — Share of gambling marketing spend going to television

4 — Pipeline states in active online gaming legislative consideration: NY, IL, IN, VA

SIX SHIFTS RESHAPING GAMING AND GAMBLING BRAND COMPETITION

01 — The marketing allocation is the inverse of what the data supports.
The Gaming Trust Index analyzed 47,000+ articles and $3.9 billion in tracked U.S. gambling marketing spend. Television received 36% ($1.42 billion), celebrity and athlete partnerships received 13% ($520 million), and earned media / PR received 2.3% ($90 million). Responsible gambling programs received 1.5% ($60 million). The two categories with the lowest investment generate the highest documented return on brand credibility. The operators who recognize this first hold the multi-year advantage.

02 — State legalization is a communications competition as much as a product competition.
U.S. online gaming generated $12.8 billion in GGR in 2025 across seven legal states, with New York, Illinois, Indiana, and Virginia in active legislative consideration. Analysis of the 2021 Michigan online gaming launch shows that operators with pre-existing earned media presence in the state achieved faster initial user acquisition than operators that relied solely on advertising at market open. The operators building earned media presence now — before those markets open — will have a structural advantage that advertising spend at launch cannot replicate.

03 — The celebrity partnership gap is now an investor and regulatory exposure.
The industry spent $520 million on celebrity partnerships in 2025 — nearly nine times its investment in responsible gambling communications. ESG analysts covering publicly traded operators have increasingly included RG investment as a proportion of marketing spend in published research. The structural fix is not to cut celebrity partnerships. It is to restructure them: multi-year ambassadorships with RG messaging built in, FTC disclosure compliance at scale, and measurable brand-lift attribution rather than impression-based deals.

04 — AI-powered search is ceding operator narratives to third-party sources.
As consumers, journalists, and regulators turn to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude for answers about gaming operators, the AI synthesis draws from whatever content ranks — typically third-party review sites, financial news, and regulatory coverage. Operators that have not built digital content ecosystems are ceding their brand narratives to those sources by default. The Gaming Trust Index calls this the GEO gap — one of the most addressable vulnerabilities in American consumer brand strategy.

05 — Regulation FD now plays out on executive social accounts — and PR firms carry liability.
In September 2024, the SEC charged DraftKings with Regulation FD violations after its CEO posted material information to personal social accounts. The enforcement order also put PR firms and agencies on notice: when an outside communications firm acts on behalf of an issuer, the issuer is on the hook for what they post. The policy document is not the protection — the workflow is.

06 — Land-based casino operators are in a deeper digital gap than they recognize.
The $67.8 billion U.S. land-based casino market has invested minimally in the digital earned media infrastructure that determines how brands appear in AI-generated search results. The fix is a steady cadence of earned content on property experience, responsible gambling leadership, community investment, and executive voice — enough volume, consistently enough, to shape what AI tools synthesize into the first answer a guest sees.

THREE CASE STUDIES

DraftKings — When the PR firm's post on the CEO's account becomes the SEC's enforcement action.
On September 26, 2024, the SEC charged DraftKings with violating Regulation FD and assessed a $200,000 civil penalty. The trigger: on July 27, 2023 — one week before DraftKings was scheduled to release its second-quarter 2023 earnings — the company's outside public relations firm posted material nonpublic information on the personal X and LinkedIn accounts of the DraftKings CEO. The post stated that the company was "still seeing really strong growth in existing states." Neither the CEO's X account nor his LinkedIn account had been publicly identified by DraftKings as a Regulation FD-compliant disclosure channel. The information was material. It was nonpublic. And the issuer was on the hook for what its PR firm posted on its CEO's behalf.

DraftKings had a Regulation FD policy. It had a social media policy. The PR firm was authorized to post for the CEO. None of that was the protection. The protection would have been a workflow that prevented the post from going up before earnings, or one that triggered a Form 8-K within twenty-four hours when the post did go up. DraftKings did not publicly disclose the information until the August 3, 2023 earnings release — seven days late under Reg FD's prompt-disclosure standard.

The lesson for every public gaming operator and every PR firm serving one: the policy document is not the protection. The pre-clearance workflow is. Every public operator's 2026 Regulation FD policy should formally designate disclosure channels (including specific executive social accounts where they will be used), install pre-clearance workflows that prevent posts during quiet periods, and contractually extend FD obligations to every outside agency authorized to post on behalf of an executive. The September 2024 DraftKings action is now the reference case.

Michigan online gaming launch — The earned-media advantage at market open.
The 2021 Michigan online gaming launch provided the cleanest natural experiment in the category: operators that entered the market with pre-existing earned media presence in Michigan achieved faster initial user acquisition than operators that relied solely on advertising spend at launch. The pattern held across operator scale — it was not a function of brand size. It was a function of prior presence. The lesson: earned media is not faster than paid media at converting at market open. It is the thing that makes paid media work at market open.

The $520M vs. $60M ratio — Celebrity spend versus responsible gambling.
The Gaming Trust Index documented that 2025 celebrity partnership spend ($520 million) ran nearly nine times responsible gambling investment ($60 million) across the industry. ESG analysts covering publicly traded operators have begun flagging this ratio in published research — making it a current investor-relations exposure, not a hypothetical one. The lesson: responsible gambling is not a compliance checkbox. It is an investor-relations and brand-credibility line item. Operators that treat it as content — leadership voice, research partnerships, transparent reporting — hold the durable advantage.

THE SEVEN-STEP 90-DAY PLAN

01 — Map your earned media footprint against the state pipeline.
Overlay your current earned media presence against the four states in active online gaming legislative consideration — New York, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia — plus the 10+ states in sports betting expansion conversations. Document coverage volume, local-market presence, and sentiment. The map is your investment roadmap.

02 — Rebalance the marketing mix away from TV.
Use the Gaming Trust Index benchmark — 36% TV, 2.3% earned media — as the starting point. Set a 2026 target that shifts 5 to 10 percentage points from TV and celebrity fees to earned content and RG communications. Model the incremental credibility lift, not just the reach swap.

03 — Install a Regulation FD policy that covers social and agencies.
For publicly traded operators: rebuild the FD policy in light of the 2024 DraftKings enforcement. Formally designate disclosure channels. Install pre-clearance workflows during quiet periods. Contractually extend FD obligations to every PR firm and agency of record.

04 — Build an RG communications program that is actually content.
Move RG from compliance footer to content layer. Publish leadership pieces on problem-gambling research, partnership with treatment organizations, investment in player-protection tooling. ESG analysts now track RG spend as a proportion of marketing — credibility and regulatory standing overlap.

05 — Engineer creator and athlete partnerships as brand, not impressions.
Replace fee-for-post celebrity deals with multi-year partnerships that include brand ambassadorship, RG messaging, and creative-control guardrails. Work with Twitch streamers, podcast hosts, and sports-adjacent creators who drive category consideration, not just impressions. Measure brand lift.

06 — Close the GEO gap.
Query ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude with 25 questions prospects, regulators, and reporters are asking about your brand, your category, and your RG record. Document every inaccuracy and competitor surfacing. That document is your content roadmap for Q2 and Q3.

07 — Measure brand credibility, not just share of voice.
Report: brand-lift vs. sponsored-only peers, RG investment as percent of marketing spend, earned-media-attributable player acquisition in concentrated markets, FD policy compliance score, share of voice in LLM answers. Tie to regulatory standing, investor sentiment, and multi-year customer economics.

WORK WITH 5W ON GAMING & GAMBLING

5W is the AI Communications Firm. Our Gaming & Gambling Practice serves sports betting operators, online gaming platforms, and land-based casino brands across the disciplines this playbook prescribes:

Earned media and brand-credibility programs

Pre-legalization market entry communications for the state pipeline (New York, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia)

Crisis communications and Regulation FD workflow design for public operators

Responsible gambling content programs and ESG narrative for investor-relations exposure

Generative Engine Optimization and AI visibility audits across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews

Executive visibility and category leadership programs

Inquiries: [email protected] · 212.999.5585

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is earned media now the highest-leverage investment for gaming and gambling operators?

The Gaming Trust Index analyzed $3.9 billion in U.S. gambling marketing spend. Earned media received only 2.3%, yet it and responsible gambling communications generate the highest documented return on brand credibility of any channel analyzed. State legalization is a communications competition as much as a product competition — operators with earned media presence before markets open achieve faster initial user acquisition than those relying solely on advertising at launch.

How does earned media presence affect operator performance in newly legalized states?

The 2021 Michigan online gaming launch shows operators with pre-existing earned media presence in the state achieved faster initial user acquisition than operators relying solely on advertising at market open. The pattern held across operator scale — it was not a function of brand size, but of prior presence. Earned media makes paid media work at market open; it doesn't replace it.

What is the GEO gap for gaming operators?

Operators that have not built digital content ecosystems are ceding their brand narratives to third-party sources — review sites, financial news, regulatory coverage — in AI-generated answers. Query ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude with 25 questions about your brand, your category, and your RG record. Every inaccuracy and competitor surfacing in those results is your content roadmap.

How should operators structure celebrity and athlete partnerships in 2026?

Replace fee-for-post deals with multi-year partnerships that include RG messaging, FTC disclosure compliance, and measurable brand-lift attribution. The industry's current $520M celebrity spend to $60M RG investment ratio is now an ESG and investor-relations exposure for publicly traded operators. Restructure partnerships; don't cut them.

What does the DraftKings Regulation FD enforcement action mean for gaming operator communications?

The September 2024 SEC enforcement action against DraftKings — for CEO social media disclosure of material information — explicitly extended FD responsibility to PR firms acting on behalf of the issuer. Every public gaming operator should have a reviewed 2026 FD policy with pre-clearance workflows, formally designated disclosure channels, and contractual extensions to every agency of record. The policy document is not the protection. The workflow is.

How do land-based casinos compete in an AI-search era with minimal digital content footprint?

The fix is a steady cadence of earned content on property experience, responsible gambling leadership, community investment, and executive voice. Publishing one earned-content piece per property per week for 26 weeks alone moves GEO position materially. This is not a digital transformation program. It is a content cadence.

Is the playbook free to download?

Yes. The full playbook PDF is ungated and free to download. An optional email signup for future 5W research is available below.

SOURCES

5W Gaming Trust Index 2026 — inaugural annual study of U.S. gambling marketing allocation and brand credibility outcomes; $3.9B spend analyzed across 47,000+ articles. Kantar Media, MediaRadar, iSpot.tv — U.S. gambling and sports-betting advertising spend data, 2024–2025. Flutter Entertainment, MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, Penn Entertainment, DraftKings — public financial disclosures, 2024–2025. SEC Administrative Proceeding, In the Matter of DraftKings Inc. — Regulation FD enforcement action, September 26, 2024 (Exchange Act Release No. 101198). Michigan Gaming Control Board — online gaming launch data, 2021. American Gaming Association — state-by-state legalization and GGR data, 2025. National Council on Problem Gambling — responsible gambling research and treatment partnership benchmarks. Deloitte / McKinsey — ESG analyst research on responsible gambling investment as percentage of marketing spend. 5W Gaming & Gambling Practice client engagements and research.

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ABOUT 5W

5W is the AI Communications Firm, building brand authority across the platforms where decisions now happen — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — alongside earned media, digital, and influencer channels. 5W combines public relations, digital marketing, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and proprietary AI visibility research, helping clients measure and grow their presence in AI-driven buyer research.

5W has been recognized as a top U.S. PR agency by O'Dwyer's, named Agency of the Year in the American Business Awards®, and honored as a Top Place to Work in Communications in 2026 by Ragan. 5W serves clients across B2C sectors including Beauty & Fashion, Consumer Brands, Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Health & Wellness, Travel & Hospitality, Technology, and Nonprofit; B2B specialties including Corporate Communications and Reputation Management; as well as Public Affairs, Crisis Communications, and Digital Marketing, including Social Media, Influencer, Paid Media, GEO, and SEO. 5W was also named to the Digiday WorkLife Employer of the Year list.

5W's Gaming & Gambling Practice serves sports betting operators, online gaming platforms, and land-based casino brands across earned media, crisis communications, executive visibility, responsible gambling communications, and GEO strategy — integrated with the research behind the Gaming Trust Index.

For more information, visit www.5wpr.com.