UK ASA Reverses Opinion on Sky Bet Ruling

This week the UK Advertising Standards Authority announced that they've changed their mind, reversing a previous ruling on a Sky Bet ad, saying that it did not breach regulations in the country.

The decision overturns a March ruling where the ASA said that Sky Bet's advertisement for the Request a Bet service encouraged irresponsible gaming. The ad had an announcer saying, "Forget 'anything can happen', in sport anything does happen. But could it be better? With Request a Bet it could. Spark your sports brain and roll all the possibilities into one bet. Three red cards, seven corners, five goals: lets price that up. Or browse hundreds of request a bets on our app. The possibilities are humongous. How big is your sports noggin? Sky Bet, Britain's most popular online bookmaker. When the fun stops, stop."

The ad had two complaints filed against it, but this week the ASA changed stance, noting that the ad doesn't violate rules, as references to sports knowledge didn't breach rules, nor did the "in sport anything does happen" complaint.

The ad is now cleared to be used again in the UK market. Whether or not it will be is another matter, though.