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 gambling adverts.


The post utilized an embedded clip of the ex-footballer predicting 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 "likely to be of strong interest under-18s" - which Sky Bet rejected.


The ASA's code says gambling adverts must not appeal to children or youths, "specifically by showing or being connected with 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 group in any method.


'Flawed procedure'


Sky Bet stated The Overlap, sponsored by the business and produced by Neville, was "noticeably adult in tone and did not feature any material of a childish nature".


It also mentioned 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 6 at the time, the company had actually argued.


But the ASA, which implements UK advertising guidelines, stated it had actually calculated Neville had 135,000 under-18 followers throughout Instagram and X, previously referred to as .


It acknowledged this was a "little proportion" of his combined following on both, which was 7.1 m when it released its examination in March 2023.


But the authority thought the total number was "considerable" enough to conclude the ad was careless.


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The ad featuring Neville was a promoted tweet so the ASA stated SkyBet had actually been told not to release it again.


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


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


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


X informed the regulator the advertisement 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 essentially disagree with this decision and the flawed procedure which led to this result - it defies both precedent and good sense.


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


It stated it would also seek "an independent evaluation" of the case.


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