Sportsbet faces scrutiny over multi-bet ads on AFL website
Australian sports betting company Sportsbet has been criticized for promoting its expanded same-game multi-bets on the Australian Football League’s website months after pulling similar ads from free-to-air television broadcasts.
While these online ads do not break advertising rules, gambling reform advocates argue that the action highlights a failure by the gambling industry to regulate itself.
Australian member of parliament Kate Chaney, who served on a parliamentary inquiry into gambling harm, told the Guardian Australia, “Expecting gambling companies to take their own hand out of the cookie jar is a joke and the government must know it.”
Communications Minister Annika Wells met Australian Football League Chief Executive Andrew Dillon in early July before the Sportsbet ads went live to discuss the government’s plans to tighten gambling advertising rules.
Australia’s former Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland, proposed a total ban on gambling advertising after a June 2023 parliamentary inquiry, which was abandoned the following year.
Other criticisms came from the independent senator David Pocock, who urged the government to fast-track reforms, saying Sportsbet’s actions “highlight the industry cannot be trusted to regulate itself.”
While Deakin University professor Samantha Thomas called the ads “a clear example of why comprehensive bans are needed.” At the same time, Martin Thomas, Chief Executive of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, accused Sportsbet of “virtue signaling” by removing TV ads only to promote them online.
The Guardian Australia previously reported that the Australian Football League receives a larger share of revenue from same-game multi-bets and sought an even greater cut, citing rising “integrity risks” linked to wagering.
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Charlotte Capewell brings her passion for storytelling and expertise in writing, researching, and the gambling industry to every article she writes. Her specialties include the US gambling industry, regulator legislation, igaming, and more.
