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Latest UK report reveals complex nature of advertising exposure to children, young people and vulnerable individuals

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Latest UK report reveals complex nature of advertising exposure to children, young people and vulnerable individuals
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New research into gambling advertising and marketing reveals complex nature of exposure to gambling for children, young people and vulnerable individuals

 

GambleAware has today published an interim report, produced by Ipsos MORI, that examines the frequency and format of gambling advertising and marketing, and the exposure among children, young people and vulnerable adults.

The research, which is the first of its kind in Great Britain, was carried out by two consortia led by Ipsos MORI and the Institute for Social Marketing at the University of Stirling. The research is also part of the Gambling Commission’s research programme and forms a key part of the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms.

The interim results found that, between 2015-2018, the volume and spend on gambling marketing and advertising is on the rise across different forms of media, including TV and radio, with lotteries and bookmakers among the top spenders. Sports advertising was particularly dominant online, with exposure compounded further by sponsorship used within broadcasts of live events.

Children, young people and vulnerable individuals who took part in focus group discussions for the study highlighted the prevalence of gambling advertising on TV (including during the day), on social media, on the high street and at point of sales in shops. The emergence of new sectors such as eSports presents a new set of challenges in terms of managing exposure to gambling.

In addition to advertising and marketing, the researchers identified other factors contributing to the wide exposure of gambling within society, including the role of family and friends in introducing them to gambling.  Many revealed they had experienced exposure to gambling activity from an early age in a range of settings.

Within the data captured, the research found no examples of gambling adverts being placed within children’s media, including the most popular children’s websites.  However, researchers judged much of the content contained features which might plausibly appeal directly to children and young people, including celebrity endorsement, memorable songs and catchphrases. Content which may appeal to children and young people was found in 11% of gambling adverts in the mainstream media; this was as high as 59% of eSports gambling content on Twitter – largely due to the use of animated style graphics.

Furthermore, the research found that children are currently not being actively screened out from receiving online gambling adverts and are able to follow and engage with betting-related accounts on Twitter.  This suggests that more could be done with existing technology to manage what children are exposed to.

Across the board, there was mixed levels of awareness and understanding of messages relating to risk or safer gambling among participants.  The research also identified little evidence of prominent consumer protection messages – such as age warnings or promotion of lower-risk gambling.  Therefore, more could be done to clearly highlight the risks of gambling within advertising and marketing.

In light of this, researchers found that some advertising may exploit the susceptibility, inexperience or lack of knowledge of children, young people or vulnerable adults. Over a fifth (22%) of mainstream media adverts were judged to contain features such as implied limited risk or inflated chances of winning; this rose to 37% on Twitter.

The final phase of the research and subsequent findings will focus more on the impact of gambling marketing and advertising and will be published later in 2019. The outcome of today’s stakeholder event, which presents an opportunity to discuss and build on some of the key issues that have emerged, will also be released later this year.

Marc Etches, CEO of GambleAware has said:

“This is an interim report, and as such it is too early to judge the impact of exposure to gambling advertising and marketing on children, young people and vulnerable adults. Nevertheless, the research does make important recommendations, including the need for clearer and more regular messages on gambling adverts of the risks associated with gambling, and the need to strengthen age verification processes on social media platforms.”

Ian Angus from the Gambling Commission has said:

“We welcome the publication of this interim report which contributes towards the delivery of the recently launched National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms. This research takes a significant step to address gaps in understanding of this issue and provides a clearer picture of the volume, tone and content of gambling advertising and sponsorship in Great Britain, and the extent to which children, young people and vulnerable adults are exposed to it.

We await the findings of the second phase report with interest. In the meantime, we are pleased to see that the report identifies clear areas for action that gambling firms can take now and we therefore expect them to redouble their efforts to address public concerns about the volume and nature of gambling advertising and sport sponsorship.”

Steven Ginnis, Research Director at Ipsos MORI has said:

“The research identifies the multiple touchpoints through which children, young people and vulnerable adults come in to contact with gambling marketing and advertising. This stretches from the high street to the lounge and isn’t just restricted to sports.  The impact of this exposure will be fully explored in our second report.  Participants in the research also spoke of a wide range of themes and features that they find appealing in gambling advertising; these features are more commonplace than the use of child-friendly images or phrases, for example the use of celebrities or the use of financial offers. This requires a more nuanced discussion of how best to mitigate against the risks of exposure, appeal and susceptibility to gambling advertising among these groups.”

Plain English executive summary of report

Executive summary of report

 

About the research:

  • The full report will be published on GambleAware’s website.
  • The research was carried out by two consortia:
    • Institute for Social Marketing, University of Stirling; ScotCen Social Research; University of Glasgow; and the University of Warwick
    • Ipsos MORI; Demos; Ebiquity; University of Bristol; and the University of Edinburgh
  • The research was commissioned in March 2018 and was made up of ten different strands, including media monitoring, analysis of paid-for online ads using avatars, social media analysis, and focus groups and in-depth interviews with children, young people and vulnerable adults.
  • Ipsos MORI conducted media monitoring research using Ebiquity’s in house advertising database, Portfolio. Portfolio is an advertising research platform, which links advertisements to their placement in the media and the standard spend rate for these advertisements.
  • Ipsos MORI conducted in-depth interviews (including diary research) with 28 children and young people aged 11-24 and 32 vulnerable adults. ScotCen spoke to a total of 83 people in either one of 13 focus groups or additional four in-depth interviews, including 62 young people aged 11-24, 13 adults with an experience of mental health problems, and 8 adults with problems with gambling. Vulnerable adults were defined as “people living in constrained economic circumstances”, “people with limited capacity to understand information”, “people already experiencing gambling problems” or “people with experiences of mental health problems”.
  • 11 online avatars were created, each had a specific personality and were developed through normal browsing activity, akin to the behaviours of a real online user. This was done using ‘Audience Panel Simulation’.
  • Two content analyses were conducted of a sample of adverts placed on mainstream media (conducted by University of Stirling) and on Twitter (conducted by University of Bristol).  The content analysis codebook used to categorise adverts covered six main areas: i) descriptive information; ii) design features; iii) content in detail; iv) consumer protection information; v) information about the gambling; and vi) messages about gambling behaviour and outcomes.
  • The objectives of the research were to:
    • Explore whether and how gambling marketing and advertising influences children and young people’s attitudes towards gambling.
    • Examine the tone and content of gambling marketing and advertising across all media.
    • Identify specific themes and features of gambling advertising that children, young people and vulnerable people are particularly susceptible to.
  • The final phase of the research focuses on the impact of gambling marketing and advertising on children, young people and vulnerable people and will be published later in 2019.
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Bacta pledge support for Safer Gambling Week as industry drives awareness campaign

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Bacta is at the forefront of initiatives to encourage responsible gambling with the leading trade association for the land-based low-stake sector joining the Betting and Gaming Council, the Lotteries Council and the Bingo Association as organisers and supporters of the 2024 edition of Safer Gambling Week (SGW) which runs 18th – 24th November.

With a core objective of encouraging people to talk and take action to gamble responsibly, the initiative which is running for its eighth year, will feature what the official SGW web site refers to as a ‘blitz’ of safer gambling messages online and in land-based venues in order to spark a nationwide conversation about responsible gambling and the safeguards that have been put in place by the regulated industry.

George McGregor Bacta’s Executive Director (Government Relations) believes the initiative continues to make a significant contribution to the industry’s endeavours to reduce further the incidence of problem gambling. He stated: “The first point to make is that Safer Gambling Week draws attention to what Bacta members are practicing every week and every day of the year. This commitment and culture is something that every Bacta member should be extremely proud of.

“The consumer-facing Safer Gambling website poses a series of questions to consider and outlines how to use safer gambling tools such as setting time and deposit limits and how to self-exclude from gambling.”

He added: “As an awareness raising initiative Safer Gambling Week has demonstrated its value. Safer Gambling Week 2023 smashed previous social media records, generating over 50 million impressions across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

“The website received half a million visits and the campaign engaged with a large number of cross-party MPs and peers who gave their backing as did Premier League clubs West Ham United and Brighton and Hove Albion.

“Safer Gambling Week demonstrates that Bacta, its members and the industry at large is fully committed to delivering a safe, responsible and enjoyable gambling entertainment experience for all of its customers.”

 

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Financial reports

SharpLink Gaming Announces Third Quarter 2024 Financial Results

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SharpLink Gaming, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBET) (“SharpLink” or the “Company”), an online performance-based marketing company serving the U.S. sports betting and iGaming industries, today announced its financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024.

Financial Highlights

  • Revenues decreased 27.7% to $2,838,908 for the first nine months of 2024, compared to $3,925,618 for the same nine-month period in 2023. For the three months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, revenues declined 34.7% to $881,690 compared to $1,349,331, respectively.
  • Total operating expenses declined 25.9% to $4,426,835 from $5,977,327 for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively; and total operating expenses dropped 46.0% to $970,080 from $1,795,057 for the three months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively.
  • For the nine months ended September 30, 2024, net income climbed to $11,002,266 after factoring net income from discontinued operations of $14,567,733 – up 673.3% from a net loss of $9,114,443 inclusive of the net loss from discontinued operations of $2,523,754 posted for the comparable nine months in the prior year. After factoring a net loss from discontinued operations of $97,139, the net loss for the three months ended September 30, 2024 decreased 68.9% to $885,131 when compared to a net loss of $2,849,547 for the same three months ended September 30, 2023 after factoring a net loss from discontinued operations of $822,100.
  • As of September 30, 2024, cash on hand was $1,850,206 and total stockholders’ equity was $2,020,143. This compared to $2,487,481 cash on hand and total stockholders’ deficit of $9,399,769 as of December 31, 2023.

Commenting on the results, SharpLink Chairman and CEO Rob Phythian said, “The notable decline in operating expenses reflects SharpLink’s continued focus on streamlining our affiliate marketing business; and the significant improvement in our bottom line results is largely a result of our $22.5 million cash sale of our SportsHub fantasy sports and sports game development businesses to RSports Interactive, Inc. earlier this year. Since that time, we have succeeded at scouring our balance sheet, eliminating virtually all of our debt, and have turned our attention to identifying, qualifying and pursuing compelling strategic growth opportunities that we believe can best be leveraged to create and enhance long-term sustainable value for our shareholders. As we progress through to the end of the year, we look forward to sharing much greater insight into our future plans for SharpLink resulting from the collective due diligence efforts of our leadership team and our highly engaged Board of Directors.”

For more detailed information about SharpLink’s Third Quarter 2024 financial results, please refer to the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed yesterday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and accessible online at sec.gov or via SharpLink’s investor relations page at investors.sharplink.com/

About SharpLink Gaming, Inc.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, SharpLink is a trusted marketing partner to leading sportsbooks and online casino gaming operators worldwide. Through its iGaming affiliate marketing network, known as PAS.net, SharpLink focuses on driving qualified traffic and player acquisitions, retention and conversions to U.S. regulated and global iGaming operator partners worldwide. In fact, PAS.net won industry recognition as the European online gambling industry’s Top Affiliate Website and Top Affiliate Program for four consecutive years by both igamingbusiness.com and igamingaffiliate.com. SharpLink also owns and operates a portfolio of direct-to-player, state-specific, affiliate marketing websites designed to attract, acquire and drive local sports betting and online casino gaming traffic to its valued partners which are licensed to operate in each respective state. For more information, please visit sharplink.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Such statements include statements regarding the Company’s ability to grow its business through strategic growth opportunities, the potential benefits of the Company’s products, services and technologies and other statements that are not historical facts, including statements which may be accompanied by the words “intends,” “may,” “will,” “plans,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “projects,” “predicts,” “estimates,” “aims,” “believes,” “hopes,” “potential” or similar words. Actual results could differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements due to certain factors, including without limitation, the Company’s ability to achieve profitable operations, government regulation of online betting, customer acceptance of new products and services, the demand for its products and its customers’ economic condition, the impact of competitive products and pricing, the lengthy sales cycle, proprietary rights of the Company and its competitors, general economic conditions and other risk factors detailed in the Company’s annual report and other filings with the SEC. The Company does not undertake any responsibility to update the forward-looking statements in this release.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
INVESTOR AND MEDIA RELATIONS
[email protected]

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AGREEMENT BETWEEN ZITRO AND GRUPO OSGA TO PROMOTE THE LABOT INTEGRATION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

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AGREEMENT BETWEEN ZITRO AND GRUPO OSGA TO PROMOTE THE LABOT INTEGRATION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
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Zitro, a leading company in the gaming industry, has signed a collaboration agreement with Grupo OSGA, a business group committed to promoting the employment of people with disabilities. Grupo OSGA offers job opportunities to people with disabilities and supports their professional development in inclusive and accessible environments.

Through this alliance, Grupo OSGA will provide Zitro with a parcel and documentation service between its offices, optimizing Zitro’s operational efficiency and strengthening its social commitment to creating a more inclusive work environment.

At Zitro, we firmly believe in the power of diversity as a driver of growth and development. This collaboration with Grupo OSGA not only enriches our company but also reinforces our commitment to contributing to a fairer and more inclusive society,” said Albert Zorrilla, Managing Director of Zitro for Spain.

“The collaboration with a prestigious international company like Zitro not only constitutes recognition of the work that Grupo OSGA has been carrying out but also contributes to the generation of real opportunities for people with disabilities to achieve effective and stable integration in the labor market,” said Oscar Galilea, President of Grupo Osga.

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