In a competitive industry like sports betting, capturing a fresh audience requires creative tactics and incentives. To drive first-time deposits (FTDs), sportsbooks are heavily investing in pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. These campaigns are an effective way to draw in new users by offering promotions such as free bets or deposit bonuses. However, bonuses have attracted a new wave of fraud.

TrafficGuard’s new research based on campaign data of over 100 sportsbooks shows that up to 44% of the traffic for the largest operators in the industry is fraudulent or invalid. Smaller sportsbooks face a similar uphill battle, as a range of 33%-42% of their traffic can be attributed to invalid clicks.

Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have enabled bad actors to abuse bonuses using AI-powered bots. Despite sportsbooks employing sophisticated tools during platform registration and identification to filter bonus abuse, these bots generate non-genuine clicks that inflate paid media spend without delivering authentic engagement or genuine new players. New user acquisition is a critical metric for sportsbooks, and a decline in legitimate FTDs significantly impacts revenue.

One-time promos on keywords like bonus bets and free spins are........

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