Poll: Should there be tighter regulation of novelty bets?
After Win Cash Live was criticised for taking bets on footballers' sexuality, this week's eGR poll asks whether tighter restrictions on special bets are required
As bookmakers continue to look for new ways to expand their marketing armoury, many have turned to offer a wider range of novelty markets as one method of gaining those all-important column inches.
However, as securing brand exposure through this process becomes all the more competitive, a number of operators have, according to some, crossed the line from offering markets considered harmless fun to ones based on controversial events or highly sensitive issues in an attempt to gain media traction.
The latest example is that of Win Cash Live, which last week priced-up which England football international would be first to come out as homosexual.
The market was given widespread coverage in the media, the vast majority being negative while some even deemed the market to be symptomatic of the gambling industry as whole.
Win Cash Live isn’t the first to court controversy, last year Paddy Power offered a market on whether Oscar Pistorius would be found guilty of murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Again this was picked up by the press, perhaps justifying the operator’s decision to offer the bet, and while the marketing and advertising of the market was judged to be in bad taste, the offer of the betting market itself escaped reprimand.
There has also much talk around bookmakers taking bets on markets which have already been determined, such as pre-recorded shows TV including The Great British Bake Off and The Apprentice.
These instances, plus other examples, call in to question whether the Gambling Commission should have more input in the offer of novelty markets – whether the regulator should draw an ethical line that operators must not cross.
The Italian regulator has already put in place such boundaries, demanding its licensees do not offer markets based on the personal lives of individuals or on sensitive events such as the outcomes of court cases.
However, the British Gambling Commission said it should not be for the regulator to determine what is and isn’t in bad taste and what issues are or aren’t deemed to be sensitive.
With this in mind, this week’s poll asks whether you believe there should be tighter regulation of novelty markets. You can have you say on the right-hand side of the screen or via our Twitter page.