Gary Neville, Lewis Hamilton & Chelsea shine light on confusing business of betting ads

Advertising continues to be an increasingly confusing discipline for British bookmakers, with three operators including Sky Bet receiving reprimands from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) this morning.

The three rulings come just a week after the ASA updated its guidance on how gambling firms can avoid inadvertently targeting under-18s – updating the profile of which personalities can be conceited to have a strong appeal to this demographic.

How down with the kids is Gary Neville?

Of the three cases, the most notable is that of Sky Bet. The FlutterEntertainment-owned brand is one of the top dogs in UK online betting, potentially even the market leader according to some estimations.

The ASA has ordered the company to pull the online ad featuring Gary Neville, former Manchester United footballer and a well known pundit. The ASA has also told Sky Bet not to publish any ads with a ‘strong appeal’ to under-18s in the future.

The 2023 ad in question was a promotional tweet from Sky Bet featuring an embedded video from The Overlap, a regular video series starring Neville. The Sky Bet logo was included intermittently in the video, and at the end a slogan read ‘Brought to you by Sky Bet’.

This begs the question – how much appeal does Gary Neville have to under-18s?

The 50-year old former right-back hasn’t played professionally since 2011 and is now more known for his TV career, working for Sky Sports and featuring in a documentary about his ownership of Salford City FC.

Also, the ASA’s ruling appears to fly in the face of previous rulings, something which Sky Bet cited in support of its ad. The ASA’s statement notes that: “They cited previous ASA rulings where more recently-retired footballers who had moved into punditry had been judged not to be of strong appeal to under-18s.”

Previous ASA rulings have given the green light to operators working 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 notable examples.

It has made the exception with Neville for two reasons – firstly, his regular punditry covering Premier League football games, and secondly, his social media following. The ASA estimates that around 135,000 of Neville’s social media followers across X, TikTok and Instagram are under 18.

This makes Neville a ‘moderate risk’ commercial partner according to the ASA. The incident shows how significant an individual’s social media following can be in this, with the CAP Code’s ‘rule of thumb’ is that ‘at least 100,000 social media followers accounts registered to people under-18, across social media platforms, is indicative of strong appeal’.

Football and F1 – both off limits?

The second ruling may be a bit more cut and paste, although it does also highlight how divergent the ASA’s approach to enforcing the CAP Code – and the CAP Code itself – can be.

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

The ad featured a link to an article about the Grand Prix on kwiff’s website. A complainant referred the ad to the ASA, challenging whether it may have had strong appeal to young people by featuring a prominent sportsperson.

Interestingly, the complainant in question was a researcher at the University of Bristol, which just two weeks ago published a research paper examining the prevalence and impact of gambling advertising – broken down on an episode of iGaming Daily.

In the case of the Hamilton ad, 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 drivers champion Max Verstappen is 28 – it is undeniable that the driver has a huge public profile.

The ASA’s statement concluded: “We acknowledged that Sir Lewis Hamilton was primarily famous for his association with an adult oriented sport but considered he was very well known to a general UK audience, including to children and young people.

“We considered, based on his public profile, commercial partnerships, media appearances and UK under-18 social media following, that he had strong appeal to under-18s.

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

Again though, while the ASA’s assessment is easier to understand in this case, when previous rulings are considered it does still present a confusing regulatory landscape around advertising for gaming operators.

The ASA has previously allowed operators to use active athletes in marketing based on whether or not their sport has a strong appeal to young people. A bet365 social media ad featuring middleweight boxer Chris Eubank ahead of his bout against Liam Smith in Manchester in 2023 was given the green light, for example.

At the time, it seemed that active footballers were entirely off-limits, while figures from other sports with a more niche, less catch-all following than football were more fair game. Two years down the line, the ASA’s ruling regarding Kwiff suggests this isn’t entirely 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 ad on YouTube in May 2024 featured football fans wearing Chelsea FC scarves.

ASA says no to scarves

The ASA assessed that the use of the Chelsea logo shown on fans’ scarves broke CAP Code guidelines on associating gambling with youth culture, while also criticising the choice of platform for the ad. The ASA cited Ofcom data to support its stance, stating that 81% of 8-17 year olds who have social media have YouTube.

Its statement explained: “We considered that it would have been acceptable for the logo to appear in a standalone context, for example at the end of the ad, where it would act as a visual reference to a subject of the gambling activity.

“However, the logo was shown on fans’ scarves, lanyards and hats. It also featured on team shirts in wall displays and on backdrops within the stadium building.

“We considered that the depiction of the team logo in an ad that showed a stadium experience for fans was likely to strongly appeal to children and young people who supported Chelsea FC or followed football more widely.”

The commercial ties between football and betting have come under extensive scrutiny over the past few years, particularly during the Gambling Act review of 2020-2023.

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

With pressure mounting on the government to take another look at gambling regulations, advertising will likely continue to find itself in the firing line. The ASA’s rulings further hammer home that advertising will remain a confusing discipline for operators, and will probably only get more difficult as the years go by.