GVC calls for pre-watershed advertising ban

Business News

Britain’s biggest betting operator will call for a ban this week on TV gambling advertising before the 9pm watershed, in an effort to prove the industry is taking problem gambling seriously.

Kenny Alexander, chief executive of GVC, the owner of Ladbrokes Coral, wants rivals such as Paddy Power Betfair, William Hill and Bet365 to come together in promising to pull all advertising during sports broadcasts. Horseracing would be excluded, he said.

He said it was the responsibility of the industry to be proactive: “Most people in the gambling industry think there are far too many ads. We should make the changes collaboratively with the rest of the industry, which might be difficult, and ultimately it’s up to the government to decide if they want to legislate or not.”

The call puts Alexander at odds with his counterpart at Sky Betting and Gaming, Richard Flint, who wrote in the Telegraph last month that new advertising restrictions were not the answer to tackling the problems caused by gambling.

RECOMMENDED