BGC: new rules for gambling posts on football social media
The British trade body has published new rules to prevent the promotion of gambling through official club social media accounts.
UK.- The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has introduced new rules to prevent the promotion of gambling operators’ websites and offers through official football club social media accounts.
Under the new code of conduct, social media posts made by official club accounts must not include calls to action or links to gambling websites. The new rules also ban the display of direct bonuses or odds on organic tweets that cannot be targeted at over-18s only.
The new code will apply from March 1.
The BGC has written to the Premier League and the English Football League to highlight the new guidelines so that the leagues can inform their clubs and ask them to apply the same rules for non–BGC members.
See also: BGC welcomes new UK online slot rules
The new rules come after 11 Premier League, English Football League (EFL) and Scottish Premiership clubs received a letter last week warning of the risks of advertising betting companies through social media.
The letter was signed by a group of “50 former gambling addicts”.
A letter was also sent to Twitter and Facebook urging the company’s to implement age–gating for all social media accounts to allow organic posts that include gambling adverts to be seen by over-18s only.
BGC chair Brigid Simmonds OBE said: “Our members rightly have a zero tolerance approach to gambling by under-18s, so as an industry we are understandably concerned that children may be exposed to betting adverts on social media platforms.
“Our new guidelines make clear the standards expected of football clubs when they post gambling promotions on social media, and I look forward to them being put into practice as soon as possible.”
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has reported a massive decline in the number gambling-related adverts being seen by minors since the BGA introduced its Sixth Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising last August.
