Screen wipe: How has Sky's gambling ad limit been received?

The pervasiveness of gambling advertising continues to be very much the topic du jour in the UK right now. That and bet365 supremo Denise Coates’ divisive nine-figure pay packet. So when Sky announced it will limit gambling ads to one per commercial break, including during live sport, it caused quite a stir in industry circles and the mainstream press. London-based Sky, which boasts 27 million subscribers across Europe and was recently snapped up by US media and telecoms giant Comcast, will introduce the restrictions from the start of the 2018/19 Premier League season next August.

Besides the self-imposed crackdown, the pay-TV company is developing its AdSmart technology to allow subscribers to block gambling adverts from June 2020. It will be available for over 140 channels on the Sky and Virgin Media platforms and includes Sky Sports channels. As it stands, sports betting adverts are only screened during live sport programmes, although that does mean minors are usually exposed to gambling messaging from around lunchtime onwards, especially on weekends.

The fear is that this bombardment – usually up to four bookmaker ads per commercial break on Sky – is introducing youngsters to gambling and normalising the link between sport and having a flutter. On balance, it could very well be. Such is the concern around the level of gambling advertising on the small screen right now that the Remote Gambling Association recently convened to discuss various self-imposed options – including limiting ads to one per TV break or abstaining altogether from advertising on TV during live sport.

Furthermore, a handful of operators have spoken out publicly in support of some sort of restrictions, or even a pre-watershed ban. It seems they now recognise the seriousness of the situation. “We welcome the move [by Sky] as yes, there were too many adverts on television and it has become an issue that the industry cannot ignore,” Anthony Werkman, CEO of Betway, a prolific advertiser in the UK, tells EGR Marketing.

“Advertising around live sporting events is hugely condensed and while there is no evidence to show a link between advertising and problem gambling, there’s clearly a lot of disenchantment out there and something needed to be done.” He continues: “Content and volume of advertising will therefore continue to be important factors in establishing trust with our audience and every operator needs to take note of that and respond appropriately.”

Proactive steps

Cynics may argue Sky is only culling betting ads to try to fend off the government introducing a pre-watershed ban against a backdrop of mounting criticism in the media and the public around the amount of gambling-related advertising. “Politically, it’s very clever and sensible, but I also think it’s by no means an act of goodwill,” says PR consultant Alex Donohue, formerly of Ladbrokes.

This view is echoed by Harry Lang, founder of Brand Architects and former marketing director for Pinnacle. “Sky wants to milk the gambling teat as long as possible, of course. This is one step to delay the inevitable – a total ad ban is a matter of when, not if.” It’s yet to be seen whether rivals BT Sport and ITV Sport will follow Sky’s lead with restrictions of their own. Research earlier this year found that 17% of all adverts during this summer’s World Cup on ITV were from bookmakers.

This onslaught is why the Labour Party has vowed to roll out a “whistle-to-whistle” ban on betting ads should it get into power. Yet Betway’s Werkman believes that if the industry can shift gambling advertising’s tonality and decrease the volume of ads, a pre-

watershed ban can be avoided. “To do this, responsible gambling messaging needs to shift from being simply stickers applied at the end of adverts towards substantive messaging,” he says. “Delivering this will create a bigger cut-through on the issues and the solutions available which will, in turn, lead to a more informed choice being made by the audience.”

Others are convinced we’ve passed a tipping point. “I think a pre-watershed ban is inevitable and pretty likely to happen very soon – that’s the word on the street,” says Allan Turner, CMO of online casino BGO. If a ban did become law, horseracing is very likely to be exempt due to its reliance on betting to fund the sport and draw TV audiences. In Australia, for instance, betting ads are banned around and during live sport – apart from racing. Bingo operators, which are currently permitted to advertise during the daytime in the UK, could themselves as collateral damage in any pre-watershed ad ban.

The upshot would be that the TV schedules after 9pm – when casino sites are allowed to promote their products – are likely to become even more packed with gambling commercials. If that’s the case, is shunting all ads until after the watershed an effective way of preventing problem gamblers and teenagers from being exposed to gambling ads? Almost certainly not. And of course, minors and problem gamblers are easily exposed to gambling online and via social platforms, the latter of which can feel a bit like the unregulated Wild West.

In fact, it wouldn’t be a complete surprise that if TV advertising is curtailed or banned outright before 9pm, then the scrutiny switches to marketing practices in the digital space. Donohue says: “Yes, someone at risk of problem gambling no longer sees the TV ads, but every time they set foot on Twitter, Instagram or the internet in general they are likely to see affiliates, publishers and influencers. That’s where I think attention is going to turn next.”

Marketing muscle

With Sky’s one-advert-per-commercial-break arrangement expected to cost bookmakers a pretty penny to secure those slots during live sport (which means Sky probably isn’t going to be hit all that hard in the wallet), operators will have to put more emphasis on alternative channels and direct player marketing. Of course, firms such as Paddy Power Betfair, which spends somewhere in the region of £50m a year on TV advertising in the UK, along with bet365 and Sky Bet are extremely powerful online brands, while the likes of William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral and Betfred can also leverage their high-street presence.

But how will the lesser-known brands cope if they are squeezed out from advertising on Sky’s platform? “These smaller brands already know how to market effectively below the line with CRM, PPC and all those other things,” says Donohue. “It would probably just force them to become even more efficient and effective at less broad-brush marketing like TV, so I think in some cases it could even help them… they can carry on what they are doing and marketing in a more targeted fashion through different channels and it means that they have got more budget available to do that.”

While a pre-watershed ban is looking likely, Sky’s pledge would seem to be a positive and pre-emptive step that could very well end up averting a change in legislation (TV gambling advertising is worth some £200m a year in the UK). “I certainly welcome the move,” says Lang, “although I suspect Sky, like many media owners before them with vice industries like alcohol and previously cigarette advertising, are simply being proactive – self-regulating before they’re told to do so. Whether they’re jumping before they’re pushed or not, the betting advertising environment around sport was getting beyond a joke – it was a cluster of rather forgettable odds and in-play markets in every ad break.

“Yes, kids will still see one betting ad per break but between good KYC requirements from the Gambling Commission and advocacy of responsible gaming messages we’re in a much better place than we were.” Yet with Italy – the second largest regulated gambling market in Europe – soon rolling out a blanket ban on gambling marketing, and Belgium banning casino ads and heavily restricting sports betting ads, it seems a sea change is afoot in many regulated European markets. Indeed, Lang reiterates this stark warning to UK operators: “Like FOBTs, the days of daytime gaming ads are ultimately numbered.”