Live odds TV adverts cut before start of NRL and AFL seasons

Live odds updates will be stripped from live NRL and AFL broadcasts after the nation’s biggest bookmaker yielded to public frustration with the volume of sports betting promotions.

For the first time in years, Sportsbet will not air live odds – a term for gambling on events that happen within a match that can be bet on while a match is ongoing – during match breaks or before the match starts and after it ends.

Sportsbet’s live odds updates are presented by former stars, such as the AFL’s Nathan Brown.

The segments are often presented by former players, including AFL’s Nathan Brown and NRL’s Joel Caine. The ads often spruik multi bets, for which the odds of winning are much slimmer.

Taken together with a 40 per cent cut in overall wagering advertising in the past year, the move to cut back on marketing reflects the sector’s realisation that its social licence was being eroded in the face of widespread calls to ban betting ads after years of saturation promotion.

Sources in major football codes, whose competitions start the next week, confirmed this year they would not broadcast live odds updates, which display head-to-head odds and wagers on in-match details such as goals and tries.

A Sportsbet spokesperson said of the live odds blackout: “Sportsbet can confirm that after listening to stakeholder and community sentiment on gambling advertising, we have taken the decision to remove integrations and ‘odds style’ ads in live sporting broadcasts.”

Sportsbet has for years been the only bookmaker that presents live odds, and an agreement has been struck with the sports’ broadcasters to ensure no other company fills the void, the sources said.

Late Labor MP Peta Murphy said in a 2023 report that a partial ban on ads would not work, arguing that blanket prohibition was needed to stop the promotions that fuel addiction and contribute to the more than $50 billion that is bet on sports each year.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been chastised by crossbenchers for shelving a plan to more heavily regulate sports betting and cap the volume of ads. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland had prepared a detailed proposal capping at two the number of ads per hour on radio and TV, banning ads around live sport or during match breaks and a total ban for ads on social media.

Confronted with opposition from media companies that own the broadcast rights for the NRL and AFL and sports bosses such as Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys, Albanese decided last year to put the reforms on ice until after the election.

Sportsbet and other firms will continue to air ads – without live odds – during breaks in play and before and after live matches.

Head of the sport betting peak body Responsible Wagering Australia’s Kai Cantwell, said Sportsbet’s decision was a positive step. Responsible Wagering Australia’s members include every major sports betting company.

“This move shows the industry is serious about reducing advertising exposure for children and vulnerable groups through self-regulation – without relying on blanket bans that could have serious unintended consequences,” he said.

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