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Networks want bans on betting extended to web

Commercial TV networks don't want to be singled out in the move to ban live betting updates during sports.

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Commercial television networks have responded to the government’s plan to phase out live betting odds by insisting the bans are extended to other media, including the internet.

Plugging betting agencies whilst broadcasting sports, and sports commentators giving live betting odds, must be phased out within 12 months.

Free TV Australia CEO Julie Flynn has welcomed the changes but said new restrictions must apply equally across all media platforms.

“Viewers are accessing content, including sport, in a variety of ways, from a variety of platforms and on a variety of devices.

“It is important that all content services are treated equally. Otherwise affected advertising will simply move to those platforms not subject to regulation.”

In truth many sports fans are turning to other platforms out of frustration with what Free TV Australia is offering. Viewers have repeatedly called on the television industry to broadcast sport live and in high definition. 

This week sports fans were fuming over the State of Origin not being broadcast in HD, and some viewers in Adelaide and Perth were disappointed Nine didn’t air the game on GEM as an alternative to its primary channel.

Free TV Australia is acknowledging the changing ways we access sport, when its revenue estimated at around $10m annually across both Free to Air and Pay TV, is under attack.

A spokesman for Senator Conroy confirmed to The Australian that advertising bans would apply to the websites of sporting codes.

TV Tonight has logged stories on the issue since 2008 when sports commentators began plugging Betfair.

Cricket commentator Richie Benaud previously told viewers: “Just a note about the major turnarounds in Betfair trading today. We’ve taken a first innings lead, Australia were $1.24 at the start of play and they’re now $5, so the draw might still be a decent bet.”

Senator Conroy says: ”You won’t need to have Richie Benaud telling you and urging you – here’s the odds on who’s going to get out next, or who’s going to bowl the next no-ball – that kind of advertising that’s being pushed into people’s faces.”

Other programmes including Big Brother have previously shown anecdotal voting trends during the final stages of voting, for flat-fee SMS voting.

11 Responses

  1. Note to betting internet sites, now that the f**ktard people at the NRL and AFL have spoken, good news, the way is open to reality TV show betting! BTW, can we lay odds on who’ll be in the top 12-14 on the next X Factor Australia, or who’ll win the first season of Amazing Race Australia?

  2. I agree with them. If they take it off FTA and i am glad its going to happen the Internet and even mobile devices whom can access the games should be in the same boat.

  3. I do think the law should extend to the internet no doubt about that. The question i have with betting so rampant in our society and with more and more people becoming problem gamblers is there anything that will make any sort of difference? I think not. Unfortunetly people love to bet and now their are numerous amounts of ways to do it. I think that we need to have a look at ourselves as a society and ask our selves where are we heading and where do we want to be in the next 50 yrs, this is question is not just applicable to gambling but pretty much everything else. I hope that this latest legislation does not turn out to be a farse like our media ownership laws

  4. I hate the governments quickfix reactions ito banning anything they deem dangerous. If something is legal to do, then what is wrong with the companies using advertising to sell the legal product?

  5. I hate the governments knee reactions in regards to banning anything they deem dangerous. If something is legal to do, then what is wrong with the companies using advertising to sell the legal product?

  7. Another good article, David. I especially liked that you linked Freeview’s concern about having a revenue stream directed to a different platform, with their apparent lack of regard for sports fans (and the consequent drifting of them over to the very same media platform).

    I abhor the nanny state that we sometimes find ourselves in but problem gambling is an insidious blight within our community and the second largest motivation for committing fraud (after simple greed) – source: Australian Institute of Crime, June 2003. With it being so much easier to “bet – on the net” (as the advert goes) instead of having to drag yourself down to the local TAB, reducing the number of people being enticed by shiny-shiny to waste their money can only be a good thing.

  8. That’s not going to happen. That would be like stopping tobacco companies from labeling their own cigarette packaging. Oh wait they did that?

  9. It didn’t stop Voss last night on the NRL coverage. They quitehappily displayed the current odds and discussed them. Not that i watched it on Nine, that would’ve meant staying up until 3am.

    It is annoying, the odds don’t affect who will win the game at all, it’s just to encourage people to place bets. If people want to bet they will, they don’t need networks feeding the habit

  10. I found it interesting to hear a story re the odds of last nights AFL match in a 3AW News report yesterday morning. Using only one, excited staff member from the named Betting Agency, it was considered News.

    I’ve worked in News rooms, if this was even a news story then the item would say that there was a trend in betting on one team and discuss why. Not just use one excited staff member of from the Betting agency who apparently called the story in.

    Not even on a slow News day.

    Unless of course, there is a commercial interest between 3AW and the Betting Agency to report on betting trends… but in the News report?

    How normal are we expected to accept betting?

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