Banned online casino beats Coke on Russians’ online video views

A blacklisted online casino operator was among Russia’s top-15 video advertisers in January, eclipsing the impressions made by the likes of Coca-Cola and Russian search engine Yandex.

On Friday, audience research firm Mediascope reported the results of a survey to determine the top-20 most-viewed online video advertising sources in January, which ranked the Curacao-licensed Azino777 online gambling brand 14th.

The top-20 list, which was compiled from the video viewing habits of 100k Russian internet users, included some of the biggest corporate names around, including Pepsi Co, Procter & Gamble, Nestle and L’Oreal, but only four internet-based companies: Azino777, Mail.ru, Google and Yandex.

Azino777 pulled off this coup thanks to a minute-long promo (viewable below) featuring rapper Viti AK-47, who extolls the virtues of winning big rubles via the online casino and the resulting attention from scantily-clad females. The video, which was released last September, has racked up over 7.5m views on YouTube.