The bookmaker Sky Bet decided to pull a market in which you could bet on phrases used by commentators after a backlash on social media. The ‘Commentator Bingo’ market was intended to be a bit of fun, with phrases such as ‘acres of space’ and ‘dangerous free-kick’ on the list of sayings that punters could get paid out for if they were said by any of the people commentating on the Liverpool v Man United match for Sky Sports.
Whilst there’s no actual link between Sky Sports and Sky Bet, it was still seen as highly unethical by social media users. It was only during the match itself that bets would have lasted for, meaning that the pre-match, post-match and half-time punditry were all excluded from the betting market.
With Jamie Carragher, Gary Neville and Martin Tyler on commentary duty, the market was intended to be some creative marketing for Sky Bet, who obviously did not expect such a backlash.
What Is Commentator Bingo
Sky Bet offered punters the opportunity to bet on the ‘exact words and phrases’ that were used by Martin Tyler, Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville when they were commentating on the Liverpool versus Manchester United match on Sunday evening.
The idea was that you could pick a phrase, with example ones being the likes of a player being in ‘acres of space’ a ‘dangerous free-kick’ being given by the referee, winning if they were said.
You didn’t have to specify which of the commentators would say it, but the exact phrase or words selected did have to be used. Football commentary has always been filled with cliches, such as the ball being played into a ‘corridor of uncertainty’ or players being ‘in and around’ those on the opposition. That was presumably behind Sky Bet’s thinking when the decided to offer the market in the first place.
The Online Backlash
While Sky Bet were probably quite pleased with the market, probably seeing it as a chance to do some creative marketing, punters online were distinctly unimpressed. A tweet about it from @TheHuwDavies that questioned the ethics of the market received more than 6,000 likes and 500 retweets. Users of the social media platform expressed a sense of disbelief that the market had been allowed to be offered in the first place.
Such novelty bets aren’t unusual and there’s nothing in the rules that forbid them, but that didn’t stop Sky Bet receiving criticism for allowing people to place bets on the market. The criticism eventually led to the betting company removing it from their match day inventory with a few hours to go before kick-off, offering no explanation for their decision to do so. Whether those that had already placed bets were paid out on winners is unclear.
Real World Criticism
It wasn’t just those online that were unimpressed with Sky Bet’s Commentator Bingo market. Carolyn Harris is a Labour MP and the Chair of the Gambling Related Harm All Party Parliamentary Group. She told The Athletic that she found the entire enterprise ‘predatory’ and said that it was both ‘astounding’ and ‘unbelievable’ that the company had offer punters such an easily manipulated market.
Harris said,
“Where are the limits? What are the boundaries on what these companies are going to take a bet on? I am aghast that they try to find a betting opportunity in every minute of the day.”
For the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group to react so angrily to such a market being offered will likely antagonise other bookmakers, fearing what the Group’s recommendations will be to the government in the future.
Was It Unethical?
One of the key questions that has emerged from the whole situation is whether or not offering the market is actually unethical. Sky Bet was bought by CVC Capital Partners in 2015 in a deal worth £800 million. It was then merged with The Stars Group in 2018 and Flutter Entertainment Plc the year after, meaning that it now has a closer link to fellow bookmakers Paddy Power and Betfair than it does to Sky Sports.
That being said, Sky Sports presenters such as Jeff Stelling are regularly used in adverts for Sky Bet, so the fact that Sky Plc sold it more than five years ago doesn’t alter the fact that there is still clearly a relationship between the two. While there is no suggestion that Sky Bet would have encouraged the commentators to say or not say certain phrases, the fact that it’s a market that could be so easily manipulated is worrying for bettors.
There’s certainly an ethical question around the idea of punters being allowed to bet on something that isn’t particularly set. If a team scores a goal or concedes a corner, both of which are things that can be bet on, then there’s no debate around whether it has happened. If a commentator says ‘acres of room’ or ‘loads of space’, it’s a minor tweak in language that would result in a bet not being paid out.
‘Novelty Bets’ Are Problematic
Betting on phrases used by the commentators of a football match is far from the only novelty market offered by bookmakers. The betting industry was criticised recently for allowing people to bet on players transferring clubs when it emerged that Keiran Trippier had breached Football Association rules on betting when he told friends to bet on the fact that he’d be sealing a transfer to Atletico Madrid.
Former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge was also fined and given a ban by the FA for a similar breach of rules when he left Merseyside. The bookie Betway launched an appeal to the entire industry to terminate all bets that related to a player’s transfer, which a number of bookmakers agreed to.
There is a hope that the United Kingdom Gambling Commission will ban such novelty bets when it launches its review of the 2005 Gambling Act in the coming weeks, the work for which is taking place at the moment.