Monitoring

Members of the European Gaming and Betting Association have committed to independent advertising monitoring during the UEFA European Football Championship, which is to commence this week.

The will form the first monitoring exercise of the association’s pan-European code of conduct on responsible advertising, which will take place from May 20, 2021 to July 20, 2021.

This will test the compliance of EGBA members during the rescheduled football championships, when it says that “gambling advertising will be particularly visible”.

Monitoring will be conducted by the European Advertising Standards Alliance, the European association of advertising standards bodies. As part of this, Nielsen, a global analytics firm which specialises in advertising tracking, will trace the advertising content of EGBA members across TV, social media and digital advertising mediums in Greece, Romania, Sweden, and Ireland. 

EASA will provide the EGBA with an analysis of the results, which may include recommendations to support compliance with the code and improve its overall effectiveness.

“EGBA members are committed to advertising in a socially responsible way, even more so during prominent events like the Euro 2020 football championships,” explained Maarten Haijer, secretary general of the EGBA.

“EGBA’s responsible advertising code puts this commitment into action and independent third-party monitoring of the code will support both compliance and trust in the code. 

“Advertising is a hot topic in many countries and the gambling sector must take more responsibility for the content and tone of its advertising. 

“We hope gambling authorities around Europe will acknowledge the efforts made by EGBA members to raise the bar in responsible advertising standards.” 

EGBA’s code of conduct on responsible advertising applies to its members, and their operations in the EU and UK, and is open for signature from other online gambling companies. 

Compliance with the code will be monitored regularly, and all monitoring results will feed into EGBA’s ongoing dialogues with EASA and national advertising regulators in the EU to support its effectiveness.