iGaming advertising in the United Kingdom: display, video and DOOH rules

Licensing and permitted advertising

Operators selling gambling services into Great Britain must hold a Gambling Commission licence to transact with and advertise to British consumers. Great Britain covers England, Scotland and Wales; the supplied results do not establish the separate requirements for Northern Ireland.

• LCCP social responsibility code 5.1.6 requires compliance with the advertising codes administered by the Advertising Standards Authority.
• CAP covers non-broadcast advertising and BCAP covers broadcast advertising; the UKGC identifies their respective gambling sections as relevant.
• Advertising must be socially responsible. Adverts breaching the codes must be amended or withdrawn.
• Serious or repeated breaches can be referred to the Gambling Commission, and broadcasters can be referred to Ofcom.

Audience and age rules

The strong-appeal restriction and audience-placement restrictions are separate obligations. The supplied evidence does not support the previous statement that creative alone determines whether a placement is allowed, or establish that no numerical audience-composition rule exists.

• Gambling adverts must not be likely to appeal strongly to children or young persons, especially through associations with youth culture.
• Adverts must not be placed in media aimed at under-18s.
• People under 25, or appearing under 25, generally cannot be shown gambling or play a significant role in an advert; detailed exceptions are unconfirmed here.
• The previously stated 100,000-under-18-follower threshold and 14 October 2025 guidance date are unconfirmed.
• The results establish under-18 advertising protections but do not directly verify the legal minimum participation age for each product covered.

Creative and content rules

Advertising must not encourage irresponsible gambling, exploit vulnerable people or suggest that gambling solves personal or financial problems. The UKGC advises particular care with imagery, wording and characters.

• Do not link gambling to seduction, sexual success or enhanced attractiveness.
• Do not include people or characters whose example is likely to be followed by under-18s or who strongly appeal to them, including relevant sportspeople and celebrities.
• The evidence does not establish blanket bans on all footballers, club badges, stadiums, animation or video-game styling; assess the supported strong-appeal restriction rather than treating every example as prohibited.
• Marketing communications must not mislead consumers.
• The previously stated April 2026 gambling-harm ruling and a specific rule for all ‘risk-free’ claims are unconfirmed in the supplied results.

Channel-specific rules

The licensing, social-responsibility, creative and promotion requirements apply alongside the relevant media code. The results do not establish identical technical targeting or clearance requirements for every channel.

• Display: non-broadcast gambling advertising falls under CAP. Do not place adverts in media aimed at under-18s or use creative with strong appeal to them. A universal requirement to age-gate every display audience is unconfirmed.
• Video/CTV: broadcast adverts fall under BCAP and non-broadcast adverts under CAP. The supplied results do not resolve the classification or additional requirements of individual CTV services.
• Video/CTV: the BGC confirms a voluntary member commitment restricting TV betting adverts from five minutes before live sport until five minutes afterwards, before the 21:00 watershed. Its extension to all online video or CTV inventory is unconfirmed.
• Video/CTV: the previous blanket statement requiring Clearcast and Radiocentre pre-clearance is unconfirmed by these results.
• DOOH/outdoor: CAP and ASA requirements apply to outdoor advertising; posters and billboards must not mislead, harm or offend. The evidence does not establish a national gambling-specific school-distance rule or detailed audience thresholds.
• DOOH/outdoor: the cited whistle-to-whistle study expressly excludes pitch-side hoardings from that TV restriction; do not treat it as a general outdoor ban.

Promotions and affiliates

UKGC guidance requires significant promotion conditions to be prominently displayed within the advert, unless it is so small that this is impossible, and close to the headline offer on relevant landing and sign-up pages. A blanket permission to place significant conditions one click away is not supported.

• Significant conditions must be clear, timely, intelligible, unambiguous, non-misleading and transparent; incentive terms must remain available throughout the promotion.
• Unless expressly permitted by law, direct electronic marketing requires informed and specific consent. Each contact must provide an opportunity to withdraw consent.
• Following withdrawal, electronic marketing must stop as soon as practicable unless the consumer consents again; the operator must be able to evidence consent.
• Take all reasonable steps to prevent marketing materials being sent to self-excluded customers. Remove or flag their details in marketing databases within two days of receiving the completed self-exclusion notification.
• Apply the same protection where self-exclusion has expired but the customer has not positively decided to return to gambling.
• Operators are responsible for contracted third parties connected with licensed activities and are primarily responsible for relevant breaches involving affiliate direct marketing.
• The UKGC expects incidents involving operators or affiliates sending marketing to self-excluded customers to be reported as key events.

Recent and upcoming changes

The UKGC confirms that CAP issued an enforcement notice to gambling businesses concerning adverts with strong appeal to under-18s. Non-compliant adverts must be amended or removed immediately; failure to comply may lead to referral to the hosting platform or the Commission. The supplied extract does not establish the notice date or monitoring start date.

• The previous claims of an enforcement notice on 4 June 2026, AI monitoring from 11 June 2026 and removal of 36 adverts across seven advertisers in July 2026 are unconfirmed.
• The UKGC advertising guidance shows a last-updated date of 29 June 2026; that does not itself establish a new rule or commencement date.
• The ICLG chapter published on 8 December 2025 reports product- and channel-specific direct-marketing consent requirements from 1 May 2025 and further incentive rules scheduled for January 2026; their exact implementation details and current status are unconfirmed by the supplied primary-source extracts.
• Reporting dated 1 January 2026 describes pressure for advertising restrictions, but does not establish a new statutory advertising ban.
• No future commencement date for a new advertising restriction is verified by these results; the previous categorical claim that no new statutory restriction is in force is also unconfirmed.

Sources

• UKGC: Advertising and marketing rules and regulations
• House of Commons Library: Gambling advertising — how is it regulated?
• UKGC: Gambling and lotteries ads of strong appeal to under-18s
• UKGC: Open and transparent marketing
• UKGC: Ensuring self-excluded customers do not receive marketing materials
• UKGC: AI powered content marketing sweep to protect children
• BGC: Advertising and marketing commitments
• ASA: Poster and other out of home
• Study: How did the whistle-to-whistle ban affect gambling advertising on TV?
• European Gaming: Gambling advertising in 2026
• ICLG: United Kingdom gambling laws and regulations 2026
• The Guardian: Pressure to restrict gambling adverts, 1 January 2026