Global sports betting and gaming group and owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, GVC Holdings has called for an end to all UK sports betting broadcast advertising.
The firm believe banning advertisement at any time of the day on live and repeated sporting events (with the exemption horse racing) will help restrict audience temptation.
Under GVC’s proposals, advertising specifically promoting responsible gambling and safer gambling campaigns would be permitted but this would be limited to one advertisement per commercial break.
In a statement, GVC said although it supports the tougher restrictions, more can still be done in helping to “revolutionise the marketing of gambling brands.”
The firms call goes further than the forthcoming pre-watershed, whistle-to-whistle advertising ban which is set to be introduced at the start of the 2019-20 football season in August.
GVC’s CEO, Kenny Alexander said: “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.”
In addition to the call for a broadcast advertising ban, the Group is also today announcing further initiatives, as part of its ‘Changing for the Bettor‘ safer gambling campaign to tackle the issue of gambling related harm head-on.
GVC are also calling for a complete shirt sponsorship and perimeter advert ban which proposes an end to all football shirt sponsorship deals with UK teams and banning perimeter board advertising at football grounds.
Other initiatives include: an increased investment into RET (Research, Education and Treatment) further contributions and development of treatment centres and safer gambling software.
To match the proposals GVC disclosed it has committed to raising its RET investment to 1% from 0.2% by 2022. It will also offer GamBan software, free to any individual who is showing signs of problematic play and has identified the Leon House centre in Manchester as the first preferred recipient for contributions to its treatment centre.
Alexander concluded: “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.”
