Fun And Games Until Someone Loses; Forbes Fires Freelancers, Blames Google

Bet bottom dollar

The proliferation of legal sports betting has brought difficult political and social issues to the surface quickly, because The New York Times reports.

And – surprise, surprise – advertising is often at the heart of the problem.

A number of class action lawsuits are reportedly underway at the state level misleading advertising claims. Virtually all sports gambling apps promote “no risk” or “no regret” first bets with promotional credit.

Also, as these applications become more sophisticated, they can recognize which bookies are winning on their platforms and have started blocking them or limiting the bets they can place.

Sportsbooks, of course, don’t limit spending when people lose a bunch of money in a short amount of time, which is what you should make.

The potential for cynical, problematic ad targeting is also an issue.

If sportsbooks can identify sharp bettors (those who consistently beat their betting lines), perhaps they can also focus on equal value. Targeting by customer lifetime value makes sense for retail brands. With a sportsbook, that means people with big life losses.

there is bill now in Congress which would ban in-game sports gambling ads.

A bad reputation

Google updated its search rankings in November to crack spam affiliate marketing sites run by well-known publishers. This so-called “page reputation abuse” policy has it has already caused a traffic crater for some places.

Now, Forbes says it will stop hiring outside writers to do product reviews for one of its affiliate sites, according to a memo sent to freelancers seen by The Verge. Forbes blames Google for that move.

Google’s policy does not bode well for the Forbes Vetted site in question.

One freelancer writing for Forbes Vetted said they were paid $3,000 per review. That’s a huge profit in today’s digital media market, suggesting the site was making money for Forbes.

Google, for its part, says it’s trying to prevent large general interest publishers from using their high search rankings to siphon affiliate revenue from dedicated review sites and blogs. In particular, Google’s search update targets pubs that outsource their affiliate business to third parties, content farms or, increasingly, generative artificial intelligence.

On the clock

The TikTok drama just doesn’t stop.

Two weeks ago, a US federal court upheld the ban and denied an injunction sought by TikTok to delay implementation, which is currently scheduled for January 19 – the day before President-elect Trump takes office.

Now the Supreme Court has agreed to hear TikTok’s appeal, CNBC reports. SCOTUS is awaiting oral argument on January 10 to rule on a potential stay.

The ad industry seems to be operating under the assumption that TikTok advertising and e-commerce will move forward largely unchanged. And the TikTok Shop, which was nothing in the US in early 2024, is gross sales of 8 billion dollars in the US this year.

It is one of the last sources of income from affiliate marketing and the main conversion center of e-commerce.

In other words, can we really lose TikTok?

Well, yes.

ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, has been adamant that it will not sell its US business, which is required by law to avoid a ban. It’s also important to note that people will still be able to use the app if they already have it. App stores in the US simply cannot allow future downloads or updates of TikTok.

But life uhhhfind a way.

But wait! There’s more!

Nielsen publishes attention metrics to evaluate ads, including a partnership with attention vendor Realeyes. [Ad Age]

Q&A with Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, Chair of the California Privacy and Consumer Protection Board. [Pluribus News]

Apple halts work on a project to build an iPhone hardware subscription service. [Bloomberg]

You are employed

Lauren Douglass joins Brand Innovators as Brand Director. [release]

Nexxen selects Carine Spitz to lead West Coast sales and client services. [release]