A pair of prominent social casino gaming companies shared their reactions during quarter three earnings calls regarding Google’s recent gambling ads policy update, in which the world’s search engine giant said it no longer put sweepstakes casinos in the same category as social casinos. That means sweeps sites will now be subject to the more stringent restrictions and requirements in the Google’s online gambling ads policy.
This move from Google not only practically eliminates paid search promotion from the marketing arsenal for most sweeps casinos, at least in the short term — but it also alleviates pressure on social casinos.
How?
Because it removes essentially the entire sweeps sector from competition for those prized paid positions at the top of Google’s search results for social casino-related terms. (Sweeps casinos also offer social casino platforms, so they compete for social casino-related terms.)
Executives from social gaming companies DoubleDown Interactive and Playtika were asked about Google’s new policy during their Q3 earnings calls this month.
DoubleDown: ‘We’re obviously glad to see it’
Although it recently forayed into the real-money gaming sector by acquiring SuprNation Ltd. to add three Western Europe iGaming brands to its portfolio, DoubleDown is first and foremost known for its assortment of social casino games under the DoubleDown brand.
The most notable is DoubleDown Casino, but there’s also DoubleDown Classic Slots and DoubleDown Fort Knox, for instance.
During the Q&A portion of DoubleDown’s recent Q3 earnings call, Joe Sigrist, the company’s CFO, was asked if the impending ban on sweepstakes casinos in California via Assembly Bill 831 and Google’s new gambling ads policy update are helping to drive down user acquisition costs for social casinos like DoubleDown.
“I appreciate you mentioning what’s going on in the sweepstakes category,” Sigrist said. “It’s obviously very interesting. I think it’s a little early for it to happen. You’re right, by the way. We’ve said probably the biggest impact on us, that we have perceived with the sweepstakes business, is upward pressure on CPIs, on advertising costs. I think it’s a little early given that California’s ban just kicked in, and some of the other states’ actions are early. It’s a little too soon to determine if that’s going to have an impact on lowering costs. I think, all in all, none of this can hurt, and we’re obviously glad to see it.”
Playtika keeping things close to the vest
Via in-house developments and partnerships with some of the biggest names in gaming, like IGT and Caesars, Playtika has amassed a lucrative library of social casino games, including popular titles such as Bingo Blitz, House of Fun, Slotomania, and Caesars Slots.
This was a question posed during Playtika’s Q3 earnings call earlier this month:
There was also recent news that Google is barring sweepstakes from advertising under the social casino category. I’m just curious, do you see this as being a meaningful tailwind for your business at all?
Craig Abrahams, Playtika’s president and CFO, handled the answer.
His was a bit more vague than Sigrist’s.
“We don’t comment on speculation,” Abrahams said, “but obviously, the situation will continue to be monitored, and wherever we see opportunities, we’ll deploy capital.”
Light & Wonder openly discusses sweeps restrictions
In a different approach, Light & Wonder executives spent part of their earnings call discussing how the market restrictions facing sweeps casinos in 2025 have already helped SciPlay, the social casino arm of their company, and that they hope those restrictions will help guide Jackpot Party Casino, arguably their biggest social title, back to a strong position.
SciPlay’s Q3 revenue was $197 million, down 4% year-over-year, which Light & Wonder CEO Matt Wilson mainly attributed to a decrease in Jackpot Party’s paying players.
And he partially attributed that decrease to the competition of sweeps casinos.
“I’ll say from the outset: Jackpot Party, in particular, is not where we want it to be, and we need to work hard to get that back into growth mode. [SciPlay CEO] Josh [Wilson] is doing a lot of work to focus on that,” Matt Wilson said. “We’ve been fairly public about the impact of sweeps on this category. We see some data in markets where sweeps is being eliminated, and we’re seeing a subsequent uptick in the social casino market. We think as that manifests over time and the deregulation of sweepstakes happens over time, that’ll be a tailwind for the social casino sector. We don’t really control that. What we can control is the economies that we can optimize in our game.
“We do think we [will] get revenue back to growth mode in 2026. As we get those games dialed in and we have the benefit from sweeps [restrictions].”
