Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard said legislation will be introduced in Parliament to ban the promotion of live betting odds during sports broadcasts.
Ms Gillard said Australians were becoming “increasingly frustrated” with the promotion of live odds during matches, some by bookmakers who appear to be part of broadcast teams and vowed that “from the moment that the players step onto the field, from the moment that they leave the field, there will be no live odds.”
Protecting children is a principal motive for the action, she said.
“I’ve made my attitude very clear to this. … It annoys me as someone who watches sporting events, that you get discussion about the odds. And it worries me, too, that kids when they’re watching TV and watching sport aren’t talking about the things we’d like them to be talking about … but talking about the live odds.”
The measure will not only prohibit live odds, but there will be no more televised reports by gambling representatives on or near the field of play, and gambling advertising will be restricted to designated commercial periods.
In a bid to preempt and/or soften the legislation, the Australian Wagering Council, representing the seven corporate bookmakers, has launched a push for a tougher TV code of practice, and industry leaders are scheduled to meet this week to enlist the support of the television networks and betting giant Tabcorp behind some form of limitation.
This is a switch for the council, which had pushed for maximum freedoms for advertisers in its March submission to the parliamentary committee reviewing the industry, but public opinion is outracing them. The bookmakers’ new proposal would leave commentators free to discuss and promote odds before games and during breaks.
“Public sentiment has moved quickly and we are trying to respond, trying to address the resentment,” an industry executive said.
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