Part of our series on ASA rulings relating to children’s appeal in gambling marketing

Sky Bet’s promoted tweet featured Gary Neville discussing the Premier League in a fan‑debate clip in his podcast ‘The Overlap’. The ASA initially upheld the complaint in October 2023 and, following an independent review, republished the ruling in October 2025 with minor amendments and revised wording of parts of the assessment. The outcome remained the same, but the update is notable for how it refines the ASA’s rationale and evidential emphasis when assessing whether an ad has strong appeal to under-18s.

Substantive common ground across both rulings remains clear. Namely, the ASA accepted that Gary Neville is now primarily a football pundit and that punditry-based discussion is less likely, in isolation, to carry strong appeal compared with an active football player. It also accepted that his TV/podcast work is orientated towards adults. Nonetheless, it concluded that the ad was likely of strong appeal because of compounding factors: the football context (Premier League fan debate with visible shirts and a football‑fan YouTube contributor), and the scale of his under‑18 social‑media following.

Where the 2025 ruling goes further is in its clarity and weight on absolute under‑18 follower numbers and platform exposure. It quantified the under‑18 cohorts on X and Instagram (c.55,000 and c.80,000 respectively, plus potentially more on platforms without available age data) and explicitly framed those figures as “significant in absolute terms,” notwithstanding the small percentage of Gary Neville’s total audience. This conclusion is in line with the updated Guidance, which sets 100,000 as a useful follower threshold.

Furthermore, updated text also places sharper emphasis on Ofcom evidence about minors’ use of social platforms and self‑verified ages, underscoring the well-established principle that the ASA will not treat standard age and interest targeting as a sufficient defence where strong appeal is present.

This article forms part of our series on recent ASA rulings relating to children’s appeal in gambling marketing. Click here to read the next article or skip straight to our key takeaways for gambling operators.

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