One year of PROGA: ASCI flags 4,858 betting ads ahead of cricket calendar, festive season

One year after the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (PROGA) came into force with a ban on direct and indirect advertising of online money games, betting and gambling promotions continue to find their way to Indian consumers, with a sharp concentration on digital platforms.

Fresh data shared by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) with e4m shows that it reported 4,858 gambling and betting advertisements in the one-year period (August 2025-till date) following PROGA's implementation. Of these, 4,856 were betting-related advertisements and only two were classified as online gaming advertisements.

The scale of the activity assumes greater significance as India enters a crowded cricket calendar followed by the festive season, traditionally one of the most valuable periods for advertisers and one in which betting operators have historically sought to associate themselves with sporting properties.

The data also indicates that the problem has not disappeared following the enactment of PROGA. Instead, enforcement appears to have pushed a substantial portion of the activity towards digital channels, surrogate identities, influencer-led promotions and platforms where advertisements can be created, altered or taken down rapidly.

Nearly 92% of post-PROGA ads came in first six months

ASCI's month-wise data reveals that the volume of reported advertisements was heavily front-loaded after PROGA came into force.

There were 1,146 ads in August 2025, 951 in September and 1,053 in October, taking the three-month total to 3,150. That means nearly 65% of all 4,858 ads reported during the one-year period were recorded in just the first three months.

The numbers subsequently declined to 725 in November, 330 in December and 245 in January 2026. Taken together, the first six months accounted for 4,450 advertisements, or nearly 92% of the full-year total.

There was then a striking lull: ASCI reported no such advertisements in February, followed by one each in March and April and two in May. But the numbers picked up again in June and July, with 220 and 182 advertisements, respectively. Two advertisements were reported in August 2026 in the data provided by ASCI.

The resurgence in June and July is significant because it comes ahead of a packed sporting season. It suggests that the disappearance of reported ads during parts of the year may not necessarily represent a permanent shutdown of the ecosystem, particularly when operators can change their marketing methods and move between platforms.

Digital platforms remain the principal battleground

The biggest shift is visible in where these advertisements are appearing.

ASCI said almost 97% of the advertisements reported during the post-PROGA period were found on the Meta Ad Library, Instagram and websites.

That is consistent with ASCI's broader experience during FY2024-25. Its annual report said 94% of violations investigated were found on digital media, while traditional media such as television and print recorded substantially higher voluntary compliance. 

The council scrutinised 9,599 advertisements for potential violations during the year, with 89% coming from its proactive monitoring programme, much of it enabled by its internal digital advertising monitoring system.

ASCI's annual report also identified offshore betting and gambling as among the most violative sectors. It reported that cases involving offshore betting and gambling advertisements increased from 1,311 in FY2023-24 to 3,081 in FY2024-25. 

A special monitoring unit established through a partnership between ASCI and online gaming federations in January 2025 helped increase scrutiny of such advertisements.

The monitoring unit found illegal betting platforms using disguised advertisements on community and fan pages, including brand tickers and influencer bios. 

ASCI identified 318 influencers promoting offshore gambling advertisements on social media. It also flagged community pages where individuals claimed exaggerated returns from small bets and posts impersonating actors, news anchors and other public personalities to promote betting platforms.

The annual report further said the advertisements were in violation of Chapter 3 of the ASCI Code, which prohibits promotion of products or services prohibited under law. It noted that many of the companies did not have an Indian presence despite actively targeting Indian consumers.

TV largely clean, but two betting TVCs still surfaced

The persistence of these advertisements has so far been overwhelmingly a digital phenomenon.

ASCI said it did not find gambling or betting advertisements on print or OTT platforms, but two TV commercial advertisements were encountered on television during the post-PROGA period.

That distinction is important for broadcasters and publishers because it indicates that compliance mechanisms in conventional media remain comparatively stronger, while the challenge has migrated to a fragmented digital ecosystem.

ASCI's annual report found that traditional media such as television and print showed near-perfect adherence to its recommendations, at around 98%, while digital media accounted for 94% of violations.

Cricket season could test the effectiveness of PROGA

The next few months could provide the biggest test yet of whether PROGA has actually changed the advertising playbook of offshore betting operators.

The cricket calendar supplied to the industry points to a particularly dense run of properties. The Women's Asia Cup 2026 is scheduled from August 28 to September 13, comprising 15 T20Is, including five India matches assuming India reaches the final.

The Asian Games women's cricket competition follows from September 17 to 22 with eight T20s, including three India matches assuming India reaches the final. The men's cricket competition is listed with 14 T20 matches, including three India matches under the same assumption.

India then travels to New Zealand from October 22 to December 1 for five T20Is, five ODIs and two Tests.

The bilateral calendar adds another layer. India is scheduled to play the West Indies between September 27 and October 17 in three ODIs and five T20Is; Sri Lanka between December 13 and 27 in three ODIs and three T20Is; Zimbabwe from January 3 to 9, 2027, in three ODIs; and Australia from January 21 to March 3 in a five-Test series.

On the supplied calendar, that represents at least 71 matches across tournaments and bilateral series, assuming India's progression to the specified stages.

For betting operators, cricket offers precisely the kind of high-frequency, India-focused engagement around which affiliate marketing, tips, prediction content and surrogate branding can be built.

"During IPL and major tournaments, sites ramp up India-facing offers around cashbacks, bonus deposits, special odds and cricket-linked promotions. Their marketing playbook is increasingly skewed towards channels that are harder to police: Telegram groups that push tips, live odds and payment instructions at scale; and Instagram and other social feeds that appear to be generic sports update pages but have users funnelled to betting apps," said Namita Viswanath, Partner at CMS INDUSLAW.

She said a significant part of the activity was user-generated and affiliate-driven, with influencers, tipsters and small creators using match previews, prediction content, discount codes and tracking links that can earn them a share of user deposits.

"This blurs the line between User Generated Content (UGC) and paid promotion and makes enforcement more difficult," Viswanath said. She added that investigators and policy reports have also flagged the use of cryptocurrency alongside conventional UPI and wallet rails, potentially making money trails harder to trace.

Festive season brings another enforcement test

The timing of the cricket calendar also overlaps with the festive shopping period, creating another opportunity for offshore operators to target Indian audiences.

"Ahead of the Asian Games, the West Indies series and Diwali, offshore operators rely on mirror domains, surrogate sports handles and festival timed bonuses, with money routed through mule accounts and crypto. Enforcement is shifting from blocking towards money trail proceedings," said Malak Bhatt, Chamber Head at Chambers of Malak Bhatt.

The issue, therefore, is increasingly moving beyond the question of whether a particular website can be blocked. Operators can shift domains, alter creative, use intermediaries and route consumers through multiple layers before reaching the underlying betting service.

Technology and gaming lawyer Jay Sayta said offshore betting platforms continue to advertise and promote themselves either directly or through surrogate brands, influencers and media outlets on platforms including Telegram and Instagram, as well as through some television and radio channels.

"It is important that the government acknowledges the impossibility of banning all online betting platforms, and continuously monitoring thousands of such websites/apps, and that enforcement of PROGA has been a failure," Sayta said.

He argued that the government should reconsider its approach and examine a regulated domestic online money gaming framework with checks, balances and stronger oversight.

Regulatory gap shifting from advertising to enforcement

PROGA prohibits direct and indirect advertising or promotion of online money games across media, while the broader intermediary framework places due-diligence obligations on platforms carrying unlawful content.

Yet the ASCI data suggests that the legal prohibition alone has not eliminated demand-side marketing aimed at Indian consumers.

The annual report provides an important baseline: even before PROGA, ASCI had already identified offshore betting and gambling as a major source of illegal advertising, with cases rising to 3,081 in FY2024-25 and hundreds of influencers involved in disguised promotions.

The 4,858 advertisements reported in the year after PROGA show that the problem did not end with the law coming into force.

With a long cricket calendar ahead, the festive season approaching and betting operators increasingly relying on surrogate brands, affiliates, influencers and hard-to-monitor digital channels, the next test for the government's online gaming policy may not be whether betting advertisements are illegal.

The harder question is whether the enforcement ecosystem can prevent those advertisements from reaching Indian consumers in the first place.