Kayo in breach of gambling advertising laws
Kayo has breached gambling advertising rules by presenting gambling advertisements during live sports events outside allowed times.
Gambling advertisements must not be shown by online content providers during live sport events between 5am and 8.30pm, including in the five minutes before and after the event.
An investigation from the Australian Communications and Media Authority identified 16 different gambling advertisements aired outside the allowed times, across a total of 267 live sport events.
Kayo’s parent company, Hubbl, claimed that was caused by a system error over a six week period in February and March, 2023.
Speaking to Mumbrella, a spokesperson said: “The issue was caused by a system coding error that affected viewers using Kayo Sports iOS applications and it was rectified as soon as Hubbl became aware of the issue.
“We are pleased to have worked collaboratively with the ACMA throughout its investigation and will continue to do so in respect of the ACMA’s remedial direction.”
ACMA’s Carolyn Lidgerwood said of the breach: “Online streaming services as well as broadcasters all have a responsibility to put robust systems in place so that they adhere to these long-standing gambling advertising rules.
“The rules are there to reduce viewer exposure to gambling ads, particularly for impressionable young audiences and those vulnerable to gambling harms. In this case Hubbl has let those viewers down.”
The ACMA has issued Hubbl with a remedial direction requiring it to arrange an external audit of its technical systems and processes, or it may be ordered by the Federal Court to pay penalties of up to $626,000 per day.
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Unless broadcasters remove gambling ads from digital live streaming completely, there is no bulletproof way of avoiding this happening, specially with programmatic in the mix..
Also what does “16 different advertisements aired” mean in digital? How many impressions was aired to how many people, for how many different brands? What is the consequence of airing 100 imps vs airing 1 mil imps?
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Most sports or broadcasters won’t survive without gambling revenue these days. The benchmark will be punishment avoidance, rather than responsible compliance moving forward and if the occasional fine is incurred then they will just raise the sponsorship fees.
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Hopefully these are more death throws of the legacy media barons. Sporting associations should and can manage their own content. Just setup platform distribution deals with all and sundry. My choice will be YouTube, too easy. An association could make more money, the platforms can take their cut and the users can pay less than they do today; no need for any adverts.
I cringe when I watch EPL highlights on Optus and my young kids ask me what Hungry Jacks is (I reply – it is awful), then a gambling ad pops up; arrrggghhh.
Isn’t Kayo just an old media business model online?
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