The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, or ASA, has warned gambling operators that a “vast majority” of their content marketing posted on social media platforms is classed as marketing, and therefore must abide by its rules.
The ASA has pointed out that there are exceptions since it does not regulate advertising but does regulate editorial content. Considering that the ASA considers a lot of editorial content as “content marketing”, this means that a lot of the content posted by iGaming brands is considered under the regulation of the ASA.
The ASA said: “Gambling social media accounts sometimes include editorial-style content, like commentary or opinions on recent events, or more abstract humor, such as ‘memes’ and other irreverent takes on current sporting news. This has been described by researchers as ‘content marketing’ where there are no direct product references, calls to action or links to operator websites.”
However, they have outlined that there are exceptions, such as certain social media content which might fall outside the ASA’s enforcement remit on the basis that it is considered not to be directly connected with the supply of the gambling product”.
“This is likely to be where there are no direct, or significant indirect references, to gambling products,” it added.
