Fantasy sports' body lauds govt's guidelines on online betting ads

Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) on Thursday lauded the government advisory against showing ads of online betting sites on any television and digital media platforms.
 

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Monday issued two advisories asking private television channels, digital news publishers, and over-the-top (OTT) platforms to refrain from showing advertisements on online betting sites. It has also asked the channels to stop publishing surrogate advertisements of such illegal sites.
 

The Advisories also stated that since betting and gambling are illegal in most parts of the country, advertisements of these betting platforms as well as their surrogates are also illegal and should not be shown to Indian consumers. MIB has referred to the Consumer Protection Act 2019, Cable TV Network Regulation Act 1995, and the IT Rules, 2021 while issuing the advisories.
 

Joy Bhattacharjya, Director-General of FIFS said, “We thank the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for this important step. This move from the Ministry will ensure that Indian citizens are educated about the risks of these platforms and do not get lured or trapped by the same. We are hopeful that this initiative will lead to further stringent action on these players by other arms of the Government as well.” 
 

The advisories were supplemented with evidence of direct and surrogate ads of betting websites such as Fairplay, PariMatch, Betway, Wolf 777, and 1xBet. The ministry added that online offshore betting platforms were using news websites as a surrogate product to advertise the betting platforms on digital media. The logos of surrogate news websites also resemble betting platforms.
 

FIFS has recently revised its charter to promote innovation with responsible growth for the fantasy sports industry. The new charter emphasizes the role of the Fantasy Sports Regulatory Authority (FSRA), an independent self-regulatory body comprising three former judges.
 

“In the advisories issued by the government, a clear stand has been taken by MIB against direct and surrogate advertisements of offshore betting platforms, saying that it may also invite penal action for the broadcasters,” the industry body said in a press release.