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 betting adverts.


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


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


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


The ASA's code says betting adverts need to not appeal to children or youths, "especially by reflecting or being related to youth culture".


They say their guidelines are based upon the fact that gambling is not for under-18s, so adverts on the topic 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 "definitely adult in tone and did not include any content of a childish nature".


It likewise mentioned that the footballer, a star of Manchester United's "Class of '92", ended his professional profession in 2011.


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


But the ASA, which imposes UK advertising rules, said it had actually calculated Neville had 135,000 under-18 fans throughout 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 introduced its investigation in March 2023.


But the authority thought the general number was "substantial" enough to conclude the ad was careless.


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


Its ruling likewise bans them from featuring him once again in any media that isn't strictly established to leave out under-18s.


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


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


X informed the the ad did not breach any of its present policies and it had not gotten any complaints.


A representative for Sky Bet's moms and dad company Flutter said: "We basically disagree with this choice and the flawed process which resulted in this outcome - it defies both precedent and sound judgment.


"The ASA did not get a single grievance from the public or broader stakeholders about the social networks post in concern."


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


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