The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)  has issued new guidance to operators with the attention of many football fans will be drawn to the UEFA Euro 2024 Football Championships in Germany.

Many operators will be looking to take advantage of the hype and interest in the tournament, particularly if England can progress deep into the knockout stages, as many will hope they can.

In light of the advertising and marketing opportunities that the tournament presents, the Advertising Standards Authority has published guidance to remind marketers of key issues to consider in order to avoid breaching its advertising codes, namely: the broadcast advertising code (the BCAP Code), covering adverts shown via broadcast media; and the non-broadcast code (the CAP Code), covering adverts shown via any other media (together, the Advertising Codes).

For some time, the Advertising Codes have prohibited players under the age of 25 from appearing in gambling ads. However, as covered in one of previous blogs, the rules restricting the content of gambling ads were tightened in October 2022 ahead of the last major international football tournament, being the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Since then, as covered in another of our blogs, a number of advertisers have fallen foul of the amended rules as a result of featuring footballers, pundits and managers in their gambling ads.

The amended Advertising Codes prohibit all gambling ads that are “likely to be of strong appeal to children or young persons, especially by reflecting or being associated with youth culture”. More specifically, the amended rules provide that gambling ads must not include “a person or character” who has strong appeal to under-18s. Similarly, ads for gambling products associated with “activities” that are of strong appeal to under-18s should be avoided, unless appropriate steps are taken to limit their appeal.