Gary Neville, Lewis Hamilton

Advertising continues to be a progressively confusing discipline for British bookmakers, with 3 operators including Sky Bet getting reprimands from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) today.


The three rulings come simply a week after the ASA upgraded its assistance on how gaming companies can prevent accidentally targeting under-18s - updating the profile of which personalities can be conceited to have a strong interest this group.


How down with the kids is Gary Neville?


Of the 3 cases, the most notable is that of Sky Bet. The FlutterEntertainment-owned brand is among the top dogs in UK online wagering, possibly even the market leader according to some evaluations.


The ASA has actually ordered the business to pull the online ad including Gary Neville, previous Manchester United footballer and a well understood pundit. The ASA has actually also told Sky Bet not to publish any advertisements with a 'strong appeal' to under-18s in the future.


The 2023 ad in question was an advertising tweet from Sky Bet including an embedded video from The Overlap, a regular video series starring Neville. The Sky Bet logo design was consisted of intermittently in the video, and at the end a slogan read 'Brought to you by Sky Bet'.


Gary Neville during a 2009 Champions League game playing for Manchester United - Credit: photoyh/ Shutterstock


This asks the concern - just how much appeal does Gary Neville have to under-18s?


The 50-year old former right-back hasn't played professionally considering that 2011 and is now more understood for his TV profession, working for Sky Sports and including in a documentary about his ownership of Salford City FC.


Also, the ASA's judgment appears to fly in the face of previous rulings, something which Sky Bet pointed out in support of its ad. The ASA's declaration notes that: "They cited previous ASA rulings where more recently-retired footballers who had moved into punditry had actually been judged not to be of strong interest under-18s."


Previous ASA judgments have actually given the green light to operators dealing with retired footballers - William Hill and Robbie Savage, Paddy Power and Peter Crouch, and interestingly, Sky Bet and Micah Richards, being three of the most significant examples.


It has actually made the exception with Neville for two reasons - firstly, his regular punditry covering Premier League football games, and second of all, his social media following. The ASA approximates that around 135,000 of Neville's social networks fans throughout X, TikTok and Instagram are under 18.


This makes Neville a 'moderate risk' industrial partner according to the ASA. The event demonstrates how substantial an individual's social media following can be in this, with the CAP Code's 'guideline' is that 'a minimum of 100,000 social media fans accounts signed up to people under-18, across social networks platforms, is a sign of strong appeal'.


Football and F1 - both off limits?


The second judgment may be a bit more cut and paste, although it does likewise highlight how divergent the ASA's technique to enforcing the CAP Code - and the CAP Code itself - can be.


Kwiff, signed up as Eaton Gate Gaming, shared a post to its X profile on 14 July 2024 featuring a photo of seven-time Formula One motorists promote Lewis Hamilton ahead of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, which Hamilton would later win.


The ad featured a link to a post about the Grand Prix on kwiff's site. A complainant referred the ad to the ASA, challenging whether it might have had strong attract young individuals by featuring a popular sportsperson.


Interestingly, the in concern was a researcher at the University of Bristol, which simply 2 weeks ago published a research paper examining the occurrence and effect of betting advertising - broken down on an episode of iGaming Daily.


In the case of the Hamilton advertisement, it is a bit more plain to see why the ASA judged this broke the CAP Code. Although as Kwiff noted, Hamilton is much older than some other drivers - he is 40 while four-time and 2024 motorists promote Max Verstappen is 28 - it is indisputable that the motorist has a big public profile.


The ASA's statement concluded: "We acknowledged that Sir Lewis Hamilton was primarily well-known for his association with an adult oriented sport but considered he was extremely well known to a basic UK audience, including to children and young individuals.


"We thought about, based on his public profile, industrial collaborations, media looks and UK under-18 social networks following, that he had strong attract under-18s.


"For those reasons, we concluded the ad was irresponsible and breached the Code."


Again however, while the ASA's evaluation is simpler to comprehend in this case, when previous judgments are considered it does still present a complicated regulatory landscape around advertising for video gaming operators.


The ASA has previously allowed operators to use active professional athletes in marketing based upon whether or not their sport has a strong interest youths. A bet365 social networks ad featuring middleweight boxer Chris Eubank ahead of his bout versus Liam Smith in Manchester in 2023 was okayed, for example.


At the time, it seemed that active footballers were entirely off-limits, while figures from other sports with a more specific niche, less catch-all following than football were more level playing field. Two years down the line, the ASA's ruling concerning Kwiff recommends this isn't totally the case.


And on the topic of football, this brings us to the final case - one which didn't even feature any professional athletes. Instead, Betway's pre-roll out advertisement on YouTube in May 2024 featured football fans wearing Chelsea FC scarves.


ASA says no to scarves


The ASA assessed that the usage of the Chelsea logo shown on fans' headscarfs broke CAP Code guidelines on associating gaming with youth culture, while also criticising the choice of platform for the ad. The ASA pointed out Ofcom data to support its position, stating that 81% of 8-17 years of age who have social networks have YouTube.


Its statement explained: "We thought about that it would have been acceptable for the logo design to appear in a standalone context, for example at the end of the advertisement, where it would serve as a visual reference to a topic of the gambling activity.


"However, the logo design was shown on fans' headscarfs, lanyards and hats. It also featured on team shirts in wall displays and on backdrops within the stadium structure.


"We considered that the representation of the team logo in an ad that revealed a stadium experience for fans was likely to highly interest children and young people who supported Chelsea FC or followed football more widely."


Chelsea's Stanford Bridge stadium - Credit: Hanafi Latif/ Shutterstock


The business ties in between football and betting have come under comprehensive examination over the past couple of years, especially during the Gambling Act evaluation of 2020-2023.


The publication of the Gambling Act evaluation White Paper in April 2023 did little to appease demands for a clampdown on gambling sponsorship and marketing in sports. Neither has the Premier League's commitment to phasing out front-of-short sponsors from next season.


With pressure installing on the government to reevaluate at betting regulations, advertising will likely continue to find itself in the firing line. The ASA's judgments further hammer home that advertising will remain a confusing discipline for operators, and will probably only get more tough as the years pass.