Google revises German ad policy to ban affiliates promoting unlicensed operators

The company confirmed the changes in a recent update, which stated: “Only gambling operators and brokers licensed by the Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL) will be able to apply for advertising certification for the gambling products stated in our Gambling and games policy.

“Applications for advertisers of online gambling services who do not meet the above criteria (including those offering gambling aggregation services, for example by linking to multiple offers of different operators on their landing page) will no longer be accepted,” Google went on to say.

The platform is believed to be indicating that affiliates who promote unlicensed operators will no longer be accepted as of 25 September 2024, which would prevent them from conducting paid advertisements in Germany on Google.

However, Leadstar Media CEO and founder, Eskil Kvarnström doesn’t expect the update to have much impact on his German brands, for example, Mywettbonus.de or Mywettanbieter.de.

“We are 100% focused on organic Google traffic,” said Kvarnström. “Therefore, the new Gambling and Games Policy doesn't have any direct impact on us. 

“The policy is the same in Sweden which is one of our core markets and the home of Leadstar Media.”

Google updated its ads policy back in April 2019 for the Swedish market to allow state-licensed gambling companies to promote content in the country.  

“Google requires you to have a license in order to do Google Ads, so we are used to this setup,” concluded the Leadstar CEO.

This marks just the latest in a series of Google updates in 2024 which includes changes to how the platform prioritises content - notably in favour of human-made over AI text. Google also scrapped its plans to remove cookies from Chrome.

Google plans to speak with regulators and industries as it rolls the new cookie plan out. The company also expects those who have built Privacy Sandbox APIs in line with the old policy to still see benefits.