BGC PROHIBITS FOOTBALL CLUBS FROM PROMOTING GAMBLING IN ORGANIC SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

The screws are tightening again on the British gambling industry, as the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC) prohibits football clubs from linking to gambling content in organic social media posts. 

In another move to try and appease increasingly powerful anti-gambling lobby and head off further legal restrictions, the BGC is introducing a new code of conduct banning “calls to action, or links to gambling websites” on “organic tweets on the social media feeds of football clubs.”

The BGC has confirmed it will be writing to both the Premier League and English Football League to highlight the new rules, and to also encourage them to adopt the same restrictions for non-BGC members. 

As if that wasn’t enough, the BGC has also written to Twitter and Facebook urging them to introduce age-gating for all social media accounts. 

Explaining the new rules BGC chair, Brigid Simmonds, said:

“Football clubs are an important part of the sporting fabric of this country, followed by millions of all ages on social media.

“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 Twitter.

“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.”

Though it’s understandable that the BGC wants to underline its efforts to raise standards when it comes to advertising and marketing, the new guidelines are extremely unlikely to satisfy the anti-gambling zealots – the forces of “prohibition and populism” that former secretariat of the Parliamentary All Party Betting & Gaming Group (APBGG), Steve Donoughue, warned about just last week. 

Some may even argue that the BGC is now starting to pander to the increasing plague of “Nanny Statism” and “cancel culture” that seems to be encroaching on all aspects of British life.

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