Independent data regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has announced that it will be investigating tracking technology used by gambling firm Sky Bet.
The announcement comes as a result of allegations that Sky Bet is creating “detailed behavioural profiles” of its customers.
A complaint made by reform group Clean Up Gambling accuses Sky’s betting arm of sharing “thousands of data points with dozens of third parties” in order to persuade its users to try win back their losses.
It is claimed however that the majority of tracking is in fact used to “monitor for dangerous play” so as to prevent gamblers from going beyond their limits.
Clean Up Gambling is calling for an urgent review of the industry’s practices, alongside the ad tech companies who provide the tracking and data brokers.
It has been reported in the Financial Times that Signal, one of Sky Bet’s advertising partners held a “dossier of 186 attributes for an individual” which included their gambling habits, preferred games and which marketing strategies might be most effective on that individual.
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Clean Up Gambling’s director, Matt Zarb-Cousin has called these tactics the “sharp end of data abuse”.
A statement by Sky Bet’s Dublin-based parent company Flutter insists that safeguarding its customers’ personal data is of “paramount importance” and that the “same levels of care and vigilance” are expected from its partners.
Flutter’s statement went on to insist that all of its subsidiaries manage user data in a “controlled way” so as to “proactively protect” customers from coming to harm.
The firm also added that it cooperates with third parties to make sure that vulnerable customers are not targeted by sponsored social media ads.
The news comes as statistics released by the UK Gambling Commission revealed that the betting industry as a whole spends around £1.5 billion on advertising each year, with 60% of profits originating with only 5% of users.
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