GambleAware has confirmed its latest gambling-harm awareness campaign, ‘Bet Regret’ will be launched at half time during Sky Sports’ broadcast of Manchester United vs Liverpool on Sunday 24th February.
Aiming to raise public awareness of betting triggers and impulsive behaviours, the UK charity is placing the debuting the campaign during Sunday’s crunch clash, which is expected to generate the highest TV audience for the 2018/19 Premier League football season.
Mims Davies, Minister for Sport and Civil Society, commented: “This groundbreaking joint campaign will make people think hard about their betting habits, assist to remove the stigma around gambling addiction and give people more courage to say they need help.
“It is crucial that we both focus on prevention as well as cure and this campaign will help to educate people to recognise risky play. I am determined to deliver more collaborative work to help to change behaviours to reduce the threat of problem gambling.”
Bet Regret is the first GambleAware campaign developed under the guidance of London agency M&C Saatchi, who in 2018 were appointed to lead the charity’s new messaging and creative direction on safer gambling.
The charity has detailed that Bet Regret’s lead message targets an audience estimated at 2.4 million men aged 16-34, who gamble regularly on sport, mainly through online verticals.
Professor Sian Griffiths, Chair of the Safer Gambling Campaign Board added: “The Bet Regret campaign is about raising awareness of behaviours that people might not always recognise as impulsive or risky, such as betting when drunk, bored or chasing losses. We want people to identify with the campaign, realise they too have those kick-yourself moments when betting and reflect on their behaviours, thus preventing future ill-considered bets which are so often the pathway towards harm.”
The campaign comes as UK betting operators have agreed to a ‘whistle-to-whistle ban on all TV betting adverts during pre-watershed live sport’, which will come into place from next season.
Speaking at the time of announcement John Hagan, Chair of IGRG, said: “Today the gambling industry is responding positively to public concerns about the amount of gambling advertising on television before the watershed.”
“We are announcing a ‘whistle to whistle’ ban on gambling advertising during all televised live sport before the watershed, with the exception of horseracing and greyhound racing. We are also announcing a ban on any gambling advertising during re-runs of sporting events and highlight shows before the watershed.
“We believe that these new voluntary TV measures, which have been approved by the trade associations representing every sector of the gambling industry, will drastically reduce the amount of gambling advertising on television and they complement the strict controls that already govern gambling companies around advertising on digital platforms.
“We believe that this is itself a watershed moment as we strive to provide the ever, safer gambling environment which gambling consumers and the wider public expect, and which is so important to the future success and sustainability of our industry.”
