Sky Bet ad gets red card for promoting gambling

Are gambling operators allowed to promote gambling? That’s a question that the regulators at the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have seemingly asked and answered – if their recent decision to ban a Sky Bet ad featuring sports presenter Jeff Stelling is any indication.
Last week, regulators at the ASA issued a ruling banning a series of Sky Bet ads featuring Stelling because they promoted gambling and suggested that a strong knowledge of sports can help punters find success in sports betting.
At the center of the controversy is a series of ads promoting Sky Bet’s new “request a bet service”. This product, basically, allows players to make their own parlays by combining various wagers such as, “will there be a red card thrown in this match?” and “how many penalty kicks will take place?”. The ads feature Stelling standing in front of some charts asking, “How big is your sports brain.”
This was too much for at least two UK residents who ran straight to the ASA to warn them that Sky Bet was suggesting that people with a strong knowledge of sports have an edge in sports betting. The ASA agreed and, in a statement reported on by the UK Guardian, said, “The ad gave an erroneous perception of the extent of a gambler’s control over betting success. This gave consumers an unrealistic and exaggerated perception of the level of control they would have over the outcome of a bet and that could lead to irresponsible gambling behaviour.”
Oddly enough, the suggestion that a strong knowledge base and good research can lead to success is used by financial firms all over the world to promote their abilities to pick stocks and bonds.
Sky Bet’s ad ban is yet another sign that UK government is cracking down on gambling operators as hard as it possibly can in an effort to appease anti-gambling constituencies.