Sky Bet Tweet Featuring Gary Neville Banned Over Gambling Advertisement Rules

18 October 2023
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Tom RichardsonBBC Newsbeat


A Sky Bet tweet featuring Gary Neville has actually been banned for breaking guidelines on gambling adverts.


The post used an ingrained clip of the ex-footballer forecasting Premier League winners on YouTube series The Overlap.


Sky Bet's logo appeared throughout the video, which ended with text stating: "Brought to you by Sky Bet".


The Standards Authority (ASA) ruled Neville was "most likely to be of strong interest under-18s" - which Sky Bet rejected.


The ASA's code states gambling adverts must not attract kids or youths, "particularly by showing or being associated with youth culture".


They state their guidelines are based upon the reality that gambling is not for under-18s, so adverts on the subject can't be directed at that age in any way.


'Flawed process'


Sky Bet said The Overlap, sponsored by the company and produced by Neville, was "distinctly adult in tone and did not feature any material of a childish nature".


It also pointed out that the footballer, a star of Manchester United's "Class of '92", ended his expert career in 2011.


An 18-year-old today would have been 5 or 6 at the time, the company had actually argued.


But the ASA, which enforces UK advertising guidelines, stated it had actually computed Neville had 135,000 under-18 fans across Instagram and X, previously referred to as Twitter.


It acknowledged this was a "little percentage" of his integrated following on both, which was 7.1 m when it released its investigation in March 2023.


But the authority believed the general number was "substantial" enough to conclude the ad was reckless.


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The ad including Neville was a promoted tweet so the ASA stated SkyBet had actually been informed not to publish it again.


Its judgment likewise prohibits them from featuring him once again in any media that isn't strictly set up to omit under-18s.


It stated it had told Sky Bet not to consist of anyone with a strong appeal to under-18s in their future advertising.


The ASA said age figures for Neville's TikTok and Facebook followings were not available.


X informed the regulator the ad did not breach any of its existing policies and it had actually not received any complaints.


A spokesperson for Sky Bet's parent business Flutter stated: "We fundamentally disagree with this choice and the problematic process which led to this result - it defies both precedent and sound judgment.


"The ASA did not get a single complaint from the general public or wider stakeholders about the social networks post in question."


It said it would likewise seek "an independent review" of the case.


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