Australia to ban betting ads in live sports

The federal government announced that betting ads will be banned in live sports from March 30th.

Australia.- The Australian government announced on Friday that from March 30th betting advertisements during daytime live sports broadcasts will be banned. The prohibition will be applied to sporting events that take place between 5 am and 8:30 pm.

The measure is aimed at reducing the number of betting advertisements seen by children. Broadcasters will be banned from showing betting ads from five minutes before the start of play until five after the event finishes.

The Australian Subscription Television Association (ASTRA) said that the ban will not come into effect to low-audience sports channels; ESPN, ESPN2 and Eurosports are among those channels that will not suffer the ban. “The principle is that the small channels would be disproportionately affected; very few children watch these channels,” said Bruce Meagher, Foxtel’s head of corporate affairs and ASTRA board member.

While the ban had been hinted at last year, the extension of it is still relatively short as it doesn’t apply to dog, harness or horse racing events or online advertising. Spokesperson for the Alliance of Gambling Reform, Stephen Mayne, said that some of the code’s components are too open to interpretation: “The code is complex and some of the provisions are open to interpretation, such as whether Western Australian and South Australian viewers will face advertising earlier than the east coast. The Alliance will wait and see how it operates after April 1st.”