Google has expanded the use of personalized gambling advertising on YouTube to eligible audiences in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. The policy update, which took effect Oct. 30, also placed prediction markets within Google’s sensitive-category targeting rules.
The change allows qualifying gambling advertisers to use Google-defined audience segments for campaigns directed by interests, demographics and location. Personalized advertising lets businesses address groups selected according to characteristics or interests, but Google’s notice did not identify the individual targeting features altered by the update.
Prediction markets are included in Google’s gambling-sensitive category, alongside online and offline gambling and other gambling-related products. That classification does not itself make a prediction-market operator eligible to advertise on YouTube, however.
Prediction-market advertising remains governed by a separate policy with narrower geographic limits. Eligible campaigns can run only in approved US locations, and Google excludes Connecticut, Michigan, Nevada, New York and Ohio from those target locations. The United Kingdom and Canada are not approved locations for prediction-market advertising, despite being included in the wider YouTube personalized-gambling expansion.
Google also treats prediction-market advertising separately from sports-betting advertising. Operators must meet location-specific requirements, obtain Google certification and hold all applicable local financial, commodity or gaming licences. Eligible exchanges must be authorised by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, while qualifying brokerages must be authorised by the National Futures Association.
The revised targeting rules preserve restrictions on how gambling marketers can build audiences. Advertisers may use Google’s predefined audiences, which are configured to exclude sensitive user signals, but cannot use advertiser-curated audiences. Google also bars targeting based on health information related to gambling, and users under 18 are ineligible for personalized advertising.
The policy sits within broader controls requiring gambling advertisers to meet certification, approved-location and applicable licensing requirements, as well as prohibiting gambling ads aimed at minors. Advertisers promoting offline gambling through personalized ads must opt in, and all gambling advertisements remain subject to Google policies and local laws.
Google began allowing advertising for federally regulated prediction markets in the US in January and later created a dedicated policy section for the products. In a separate October move, Google said certified online-gambling advertisers could use YouTube Masthead placements from Oct. 21.
For the dedicated prediction-market rules, Google said the approach reflected the inherent complexities, speculative nature and distinctive regulatory classification of prediction-market contracts.
