It’s always good to know that someone has your back. When it comes to gambling, people can always rely on the UK Gambling Commission or the Swedish regulator or on all regulators, for that matter.
These days, everything revolves around safe gambling, reducing ads, keeping players safe, etc. Today we wanted to share another piece of positive news. Now, one of the biggest sports-betting and gaming groups in the world, GVC Holdings, has decided to intervene and do something about gambling advertising.
What Are They Going To Do?
Namely, they want to forbid all sportsbook broadcast advertising in the United Kingdom. The operator has already shown its support back in October 2018 and now, they have decided to once again be supportive and stand for expanding this ban to any time of day.
Furthermore, this decision will cover live and repeated sporting events, with horse racing being the only exception. On the other hand, GVC considers that campaigns promoting responsible and safer gambling are not harmful and should not be forbidden. They think that one slot ad per one commercial break is completely permissible.
Moreover, the operator claimed that the upcoming advertising ban, due to be implemented from the beginning of the 2019-20 football season simply doesn’t go far enough. This ban was agreed by the industry late last year and added to the Gambling Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising by the Industry Group for Responsible Gambling in December.
Making Sure Gamblers Are Safe:
GVC chief executive, Kenny Alexander, commented on their decision and gave further explanation:
“Whilst the vast majority of our customers enjoy our products responsibly, it is high time that the industry did more to protect its customers from potential harm. As the UK’s largest gambling company, and owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, we at GVC are doing exactly that.”
“I call on our industry peers to help us bring about an end to broadcast advertising which promotes sports-betting in the UK no matter the time of day.”
Doing More…
Besides all these beneficial things that GVC is doing, they are also planning on announcing a number of fresh initiatives that are going to revolve around gambling and how noxious it can be if misused.
In the near future, we can expect four new initiatives with a shirt sponsorship and perimeter advertising ban the most alluring. This means that popular casino will commit to terminating all football shirt sponsorship deals in this country. Furthermore, fans will also have the opportunity to sit back, relax and freely watch live sports without any commercial reminding them to bet.
Moreover, the operator will try to provide a solution that is going to help cure any gambling problem and will further establish an independent trust to make charitable contributions to treatment centers.
Alexander added:
“Increasing investment in research, education and treatment ten-fold by 2022, funding treatment centres and using technology to intervene before a problem develops, alongside our existing behavioural analytics, brings to life our commitment to be the most trusted and enjoyable betting operator in the world.”
“The industry should and can do more to protect the vulnerable, and today’s announcement demonstrates GVC’s commitment to delivering on that.”
It looks like GVC has gotten its hands full these days. Besides doing this extremely beneficial thing, they were recently welcomed by the Swedish iGaming Operator which was another significant step for them.
Source: “GVC Calls For Expanded UK Gambling Ad Ban” https://www.igamingbusiness.com/news/gvc-calls-expanded-uk-gambling-ad-ban. iGamingBusiness. April 25, 2019.
