## Advertising: 5 Key Moments – iGB
To mark the 100th edition of iGaming Business magazine, we requested Harry Lang, Advertising Director at Pinnacle, to list the 5 most significant advertising developments or happenings since the magazine’s beginning in 2002.
**Advertising: 5 Key Moments**
To mark the 100th edition of iGaming Business magazine, we requested Harry Lang, Advertising Director at Pinnacle, to list the 5 most significant advertising developments or happenings since the magazine’s beginning in 2002.
1. **UIGEA**. For those too young to recall the day in 2006, it was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. This law was a catastrophe for iGaming, causing the stock prices of PartyGaming and many other behemoths to be halved overnight. It also paved the way for PokerStars’ relentless attack on the summit. How it actually transpired is still debated, but in a nation that places the right to bear arms as the second rule in the national handbook, the deep-south Christian right-wing voting populace was sacrificed, and the American gambling populace has been paying the price ever since.
2. **Paddy Power**. I have to give these guys credit for making advertising enjoyable.
Indeed, their bold, almost daring approach to public relations and event concepts might originate from a data hub in Tallaght, yes, and they recently combined with a financial institution disguised as a betting exchange, but anyone who can construct a 100-foot Roy Hodgson Jesus sculpture on the White Cliffs of Dover and still maintain their brand deserves recognition. Likewise, it would be a serious oversight to not mention Pinnacle’s entrance into the marketplace in 1998 as a significant achievement. The introduction of the high-volume/low-margin model established the standard for sports wagering, a standard that remains unsurpassed to this day.
3. HTML5. Portable devices will always appear on this list in some form, and the application revolution seems like a location worthy of at least some commendation. Enclosing mobile web products within applications is increasingly becoming the standard practice – it’s simpler than developing applications directly and allows for more adaptable, rapid development of mobile products across platforms.
4. Google. If you’re discussing digital marketing, then “don’t be evil” must be acknowledged. From pay-per-click to search engine optimization, and everything in between, Google practically controls the digital media landscape, and anyone who doesn’t implicitly follow its regulations will fail. Whether you like it or not, the Big G is here to stay, and with a series of acquisitions, it’s only going to become more influential. Disregard them at your own risk.
5. Individuals.
In the year 2006, when I first joined the gaming sector as the marketing leader of a poker venture, it felt like a frenzy. Everywhere you looked, there were so-called “executives” attempting to make a fortune in online gaming through dishonesty and falsehoods. It was a chaotic situation. However, a decade has passed, and the industry has developed; more and more skilled individuals are building their careers in this field, and many unqualified individuals have been eliminated. Unethical practices are becoming less frequent, effective processes are becoming more widespread, and the industry is benefiting from this more qualified workforce.
Sign up for the iGaming newsletter.