L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) – France’s Unified Gambling Authority – has commissioned a ‘working group’ to examine and evaluate the media contracts of French-licensed bookmakers.
This week, ANJ announced that it had established its ‘working group of experts’ to assess bookmaker-planned marketing campaigns as part of the regulator’s examination of advertising standards in France.
The initiative was previously announced in February, as the ANJ criticised operators over an ‘oversaturation of adverts’ witnessed during the UEFA Euro 2020 Championships.
Responding to the backlash, ANJ President, Isabelle Falque Pierrotin ordered French operators to submit a six-month report outlining their upcoming advertising/marketing campaign with French media owners.
The working group has been tasked with reviewing the “supervision of these partnership or sponsorship contracts by gambling operators be dealt with within a dedicated working group, placed under the aegis of the ANJ, in tandem with the Ministry of Sports.”
The ANJ stated that the reviews will be undertaken in the context of the strong growth of sports betting, and as French media prepares to broadcast the major sporting events of the FIFA 2022 World Cup and the RFU Rugby World Cup that France will host in 2023, followed by the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“The main objective of the working group is to put in place clear rules for partnership and sponsorship contracts with gambling operators before the start of the FIFA World Cup, next November,” an ANJ statement read.
The working group will further provide best practices for operators and media owners to improve advertising campaigns and ensure that media contracts are responsible for French audiences.
ANJ maintains its previous warning that it ‘must see a vast improvement on advertising during World Cup 2022’.
ANJ’s advertising review is supported by the French media agencies of ARPP – France’s Professional Advertising Regulatory Authority, and the ARCOM the Audiovisual Communication Regulator.