Sky chief executive Stephen van Rooyen has taken aim at plans by the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) to implement a ‘whistle to whistle’ advertising ban during live sports, by pointing out that gambling firms splash out five times as much online as they do via TV.

Writing in The Times, Rooyen said: “You could be forgiven for thinking that this sounds a reasonable plan. The truth is, the facts paint a very different picture. What the RGA has failed to address is the inconvenient truth that over 80 per cent of the gambling industry’s advertising is in the largely unregulated online world.

“If the RGA and gambling companies are serious about protecting vulnerable gamblers, then they should start by looking at where they spend the most money, what has the least level of regulation and where there is most evidence of harm: the online world.”