Sky Bet Tweet Featuring Gary Neville Banned Over Gambling Ad Rules

18 October 2023
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Tom RichardsonBBC Newsbeat


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


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


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


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


The ASA's code states gambling adverts should not appeal to children or youths, "particularly by reflecting or being associated with youth culture".


They say their guidelines are based on the fact that gambling is not for under-18s, so adverts on the topic can't be directed at that age in any method.


'Flawed procedure'


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


It likewise pointed out that the footballer, a star of Manchester United's "Class of '92", ended his expert profession 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 implements UK advertising guidelines, said it had determined Neville had 135,000 under-18 followers throughout Instagram and X, formerly referred to as Twitter.


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


But the authority believed the total number was "considerable" adequate to conclude the advertisement was careless.


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


Its ruling likewise bans them from including him once again in any media that isn't strictly set up to exclude under-18s.


It stated it had actually told Sky Bet not to include anybody with a strong interest under-18s in their future marketing.


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


X told the regulator the advertisement did not breach any of its current policies and it had not gotten any grievances.


A spokesman for Sky Bet's parent business said: "We basically disagree with this choice and the problematic process which led to this result - it defies both precedent and common sense.


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


It said it would likewise look for "an independent evaluation" of the case.


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