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 including Gary Neville has been banned for breaking rules on betting 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 mentioning: "Brought to you by Sky Bet".
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled Neville was "likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s" - which Sky Bet turned down.
The ASA's code says gambling adverts must not interest children or young individuals, "especially by showing or being related to youth culture".
They say their rules are based on the fact that betting is not for under-18s, so adverts on the subject can't be directed at that age group in any way.
'Flawed procedure'
Sky Bet said The Overlap, sponsored by the business and produced by Neville, was "definitely adult in tone and did not feature any content 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 five or six at the time, the business had actually argued.
But the ASA, which implements UK marketing rules, stated it had actually computed Neville had 135,000 under-18 fans throughout Instagram and X, previously referred to as Twitter.
It acknowledged this was a "small 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 total number was "considerable" adequate to conclude the advertisement was reckless.
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The advertisement including Neville was a promoted tweet so the ASA said SkyBet had been informed not to release it once again.
Its judgment also prohibits them from featuring him once again in any media that isn't strictly established to omit under-18s.
It said it had actually told Sky Bet not to include anybody with a strong interest under-18s in their future marketing.
The ASA said age figures for Neville's TikTok and Facebook followings were not offered.
X told the regulator the advertisement did not breach any of its existing policies and it had not received any complaints.
A representative for Sky Bet's parent stated: "We essentially disagree with this decision and the flawed process which led to this outcome - it defies both precedent and common sense.
"The ASA did not receive a single grievance from the public or broader stakeholders about the social networks post in question."
It stated it would also look for "an independent review" of the case.
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