The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) said that its members have made progress in their responsible advertising efforts according to the first independent monitoring of the association’s pan-European responsible advertising code.
Conducted by the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA), an association representing Europe’s self-regulatory organisations for advertising, the monitoring found that the EGBA code is a solid basis for responsible advertising, and EGBA members already apply the majority of its measures.
EGBA commissioned EASA to monitor the code during the Euro 2020 football tournament last summer, with EASA working with Nielsen to collect 1240 adverts from EGBA members across Greece, Romania, Ireland and Sweden.
In its conclusions, shared with EGBA last month, EASA gave positive feedback about the code. It noted that, along with the solid basis aspect, the code could be strengthened further, particularly on the clarity of the responsible gambling message in the adverts, the explicit mention of legal age requirements for online gambling, the provision of a forward advice notice, and age-gating mechanisms on social media profiles.
“We’re pleased with the monitoring results and the progress our members are making in promoting responsible advertising. We thank EASA for their critical but constructive approach. Advertising is an essential tool to inform the public of which gambling operators are licensed and regulated – and it can be done responsibly. We encourage other operators to sign up to the code and join our efforts to raise responsible advertising standards. The industry must get serious about responsible and measured advertising, especially with the World Cup coming up later this year, otherwise the pressure of advertising restrictions will continue to pile on,” Maarten Haijer, Secretary General of EGBA, said.
