The Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”) and the Committee of Advertising Practice (“CAP”) have updated their guidance on the “strong appeal” rules for gambling and lotteries advertising. The updates, amongst other changes, refine how the strong appeal rules will be applied to different sports related content.
The guidance now indicates that rugby, cricket, and tennis present a “low risk” of strong appeal to under-18s. This development provides clearer guidance for brands using sports related content and talent, while maintaining the principle that gambling ads must not strongly appeal to children or young people. Whilst the guidance provides a useful starting point, it emphasises the importance of analysing audience demographics in any event.
Update
The strong appeal rules, first introduced three years ago, prohibit gambling ads that are likely to have strong appeal to under-18s. Since 2022, we have seen a wave of ASA rulings enforcing these rules, and showing us that football pundits, boxers, and Halloween imagery appeal strongly to young people.
Whilst the guidance previously categorised various sports as either high, moderate, or low risk in respect of their appeal to young people, the updated version now focuses on whether sports are “adult-centric”. This refers to “sports in which there is no evidence of significant participation or viewership amongst under 18s”. Whilst top-flight football stars, and leading e-sports players remain examples in the “high risk” categories, cricket, tennis, and rugby are now examples given in the low-risk category. The refreshed guidance refocuses the application of the rules onto data showing whether a sport or particular personality has a significant following of under-18s. The likely effect is that the ASA will be able to apply the rules more flexibly, of particular impact for sports that develop a younger following over time, such as darts.
This aligns with the ASA’s evidence-led approach, which looks at metrics such as junior participation, broadcast and social media demographics, and the prominence of the sport and its stars among under-18 audiences.
The guidance nonetheless emphasises that “low risk” does not equate to “no risk.” The usual safeguards remain. Advertisers must ensure that featured individuals are over 25 and avoid featuring persons or properties with significant youth followings. For example, content that introduces separate youth appeal indicators, such as meme formats, gaming aesthetics, or associations with youth skewing entertainment, can still breach the rules no matter the sport. Particular caution needs to be exercised over legacy content that becomes popular again.
This shift highlights the ASA’s aim for evidence-based risk assessments. The ASA continues to use social media demographics as a key source of data to apply the strong appeal rules. The updated guidance has introduced a “rule of thumb” that at least a total of 100,000 social media follower accounts registered to people under-18, across social media platforms, is indicative of a strong appeal. This is not a definitive rule of thumb; whilst it is a useful benchmark, the guidance clarifies that other factors may be relevant aside from the number of young followers an account has.
Next steps
Whilst the lower risk designation for rugby, cricket and tennis may expand scope for creative campaigns, marketers should remain diligent when planning campaigns to document an assessment of the featured sport, talent, and context, and maintain clear separation from youth culture association in styling, soundtrack, and social execution.
Marketers should remember that a sport’s overall risk profile can be affected by specific contexts. For example, individual athletes who, despite playing in a low-risk sport, have a following of under-18s, may still be unsuitable for inclusion.
We recommend that marketers assess the personalities used in their marketing materials and identify if they come close to falling within the “rule of thumb” of 100,000 under-18s followers. Where this threshold is hit, marketers should reassess this content.
If not implemented already, we recommend marketers create internal ways of working to establish a process to collect and monitor audience demographics for personalities and properties appearing in campaigns. In addition, this process should track trends that may indicate a particular theme going viral and developing a strong appeal to young people.
Co-authored by Zahra Mahmood
