By Ahmad Hathout
A Senate bill to impose a nationwide framework regulating advertising for sports betting could reduce those ads at a time when the provinces are still navigating the nascent market and as broadcasters are desperately grasping for any advertising dollars they can get, the head of a major broadcasting group told senators on the Transport and Communications committee Wednesday night.
Bill S-269 would task the minister of Canadian Heritage to consult various government departments to create a national framework “with a view to restricting the use of such advertising, limiting the scope or location … or banning the participation of celebrities and athletes in the promotion of sports betting,” among other initiatives to reduce the impact on vulnerable populations. The CRTC would at some point write a report outlining recommendations, which would then be tabled in Parliament.
The bill comes three years after the passage of the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act, which made it lawful for provinces to regulate and tax betting on individual sporting events — a market worth billions that was previously operating in the shadows of the black and grey markets. But there has been concern among advocates that the increase in ads for betting during popular sporting events on televisions across the country will exacerbate what they see as a societal problem.
“I think the market is still developing,” Kevin Desjardins, president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, which represents the large broadcasters, told senators studying the bill that passed second Senate reading in May. “I think that it’s maybe not the worst idea to have the provinces be able to build on what one another has established in this opening time of having this market open and for them to be able to either improve upon the standards and whatnot.
“At this point I think imposing a national standard is likely premature.”
Desjardins said his interpretation of the Senate bill is to effectively reduce the amount of such ads.
He drew a parallel to cannabis marketing after the drug’s legalization, where restrictions on such advertising kept people in those black and grey markets, he said. “Advertising plays a role to move people off of those other markets into the legit legalized and regulated market,” he said.
Desjardins also noted that broadcasters have had to navigate a downturn in advertising revenues, competing against currently unregulated foreign players and what they say are restrictive Canadian content obligations.
Gambling advertising has been “a significant influx of revenue to broadcasters in a moment when their revenues were severely challenged,” Desjardins said in response to a senator question about the impact of such advertising.
“It’s certainly not a long-term strategic piece to the advertising business, but it is a significant piece at the moment, especially for certain services,” he added.
“If we continue to find reasons to ban it, to regulate it because it offends peoples’ sensibilities, then we’re going to have a much poorer nation with much more content coming from outside of Canada,” he said.
He noted that there are organizations such as ThinkTV, a research firm which provides guidance on getting advertising on air, exist to assist in that endeavor.
“I don’t know what the balance is in terms of responsible gambling advertising and other advertising, but there are calls to the help lines and what does that indicate to me? It indicates that as long as people are aware of the gambling opportunities then they are also aware of the resources that are available to them to assist in managing their gambling habits,” Desjardins said. “Previously there was a lack of awareness about the availability of those resources, so that indicates to me that there is a balance.”
Shelley White, CEO of the Responsible Gambling Council, told senators Wednesday that in the advocacy organization’s experience, ThinkTV has understood the concerns about the increase in the amount of advertising, and that there’s been “some measures by broadcasters to actually, in this new sports season, to reduce the number of gambling ads.”
But White also said there is a value in having a national framework, which she said would “certainly provide the provinces with valuable guidelines with respect to leading practices for gambling, marketing and advertisers.”
Screenshot from Senate hearing Wednesday
