SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Award-winning responsible gambling initiative ‘Behind the Label’ is set to return to French broadcasting this spring.
France’s Gambling Authority l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) confirmed that the campaign has been re-commissioned to run ahead of France’s tennis grand slam event hosted in Paris, Roland Garros, from 25 May to 8 June.
Utilising lived experiences, the campaign looks to present the harsh realities of problem gambling and create a deeper understanding of the human consequences faced through gambling addiction.
‘Behind the Label’ plays on different phrases that are typically placed on gambling advertisements, bringing those phrases to life using lived experiences.
This aims to make the messaging resonate with audiences through a strategy that “becomes stronger and less theoretical”, as ANJ puts it. The regulator added that the aim is to explain that “two lines at the bottom of an ad will never be enough to tell the story of the spiral of sports betting addiction”.
The move follows recent research from the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), stating that over 1.17 million French citizens are problem gamblers.
Having been introduced during last year’s UEFA Euro Championships and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the ‘Behind the Label’ campaign aims to help the ANJ raise awareness of the risks of gambling harm.
Looking further into the statistics provided by OFDT, within the 1.17 million French problem gamblers, around 360,000 people gamble at an excessive level.
Sports betting was highlighted as a major risk for problem gamblers in France due to the rate of excessive gambling (5.9%) found to be six times higher than for lottery games.
As this year’s campaign has been launched to coincide with the Roland Garros tournament, ‘Behind the Label’ will present visuals and messaging tailored to connect with tennis fans.
Running across TV advertisements and multi-media platforms, the initiative will also encourage players to make use of safer gambling tools like Evalujeu.
Evalujeu operates as an online service that allows individuals concerned about their gambling activity to assess their gambling behaviour and access tailored advice to stay in control.
Re-launching ‘Behind the Label’ will allow the ANJ to continue prioritising its objective of achieving a “drastic reduction” in the proportion of excessive players within three years.
It is important to note that since early last year, all licensed online gambling operators in the country have been required to submit their marketing strategies to the ANJ every six months.
The rule was introduced to demystify the scale and content of gambling advertising and mitigate its influence on vulnerable individuals.
