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 featuring Gary Neville has been banned for breaking rules 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 specifying: "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 declined.


The ASA's code says gambling adverts need to not interest children or youths, "specifically by reflecting or being related to youth culture".


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


'Flawed process'


Sky Bet said The Overlap, sponsored by the business and produced by Neville, was "definitely 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 career in 2011.


An 18-year-old today would have been five or six at the time, the company had argued.


But the ASA, which implements UK advertising guidelines, stated it had actually computed Neville had 135,000 under-18 followers throughout Instagram and X, previously called Twitter.


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


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


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


Its ruling also bans them from featuring him again in any media that isn't strictly established to exclude under-18s.


It said it had told Sky Bet not to consist of anyone 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 informed the regulator the ad did not breach any of its present policies and it had actually not received any problems.


A representative for Sky Bet's parent business Flutter stated: "We basically disagree with this decision and the problematic procedure which led to this outcome - it defies both precedent and sound judgment.


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


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


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