A group of sports leagues and media entities announced the formation of the Coalition for Responsible Sports Betting Advertising April 19, a voluntary association aimed at doing its part to help ensure a responsible approach to sports betting advertising.

The coalition includes: the National Football League, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, National Basketball Association, Women’s Basketball Association, National Hockey League, NBCUniversal, and Fox.

As the initiative gets underway, the group has committed to implementing and maintaining consumer protection policies consistent with six guiding principles:

• Sports betting should be marketed only to adults of legal betting age
• Sports betting advertising should not promote irresponsible or excessive gambling or degrade the consumer experience
• Sports betting advertisements should not be misleading
• Sports betting advertisements should be in good taste
• Publishers should have appropriate internal reviews of sports betting advertising
• Publishers should review consumer complaints pertaining to sports betting advertising

“We’re proud to join these prominent sports industry stakeholders in this important effort,” said David Highhill, general manager, Sports Betting, NFL, in a press release. “Legalized sports betting offers fans another way to engage with their favorite sports, but just as we must support problem gambling prevention and resourcing, we must also remain mindful of how sports betting is presented and advertised to consumers, and this coalition should greatly aid in that cause.”

“Forming this coalition with fellow leaders in sports and entertainment is another important step for our industry as legal sports betting continues to grow,” said Kenny Gersh, executive vice president, Media & Business Development, MLB. “While providing new fan engagement opportunities to enjoy our sport in more ways, we have to continue to be mindful and deliberate with how these sports betting options are presented and to whom they’re directed. Layering this coalition’s work in the advertising arena on top of our efforts to responsible gambling and address problem gambling challenges that will lead to more thoughtful planning and implementation across the board.”

“The NBA and the WNBA are proud to join this coalition of industry leaders dedicated to prioritizing and standardizing responsible sports betting advertising,” said Scott Kaufman-Ross, head of gaming and new business ventures, NBA and WNBA. “These fundamental efforts will contribute to creating a safe, entertaining and sustainable market for sports fans to engage with legalized sports betting.”

The effort comes amid growing efforts to address responsible gaming as this nascent legalized sector continues to take shape here in New Jersey and across the country. NJBIZ has reported on several instances of those efforts in recent months while the legalized sports betting industry looks to continue building a framework of standards and practices that will sustain it as the industry evolves.

Last month, the Responsible Gaming Coalition welcomed three new members to its group, which features a cohort of the largest online gaming operators in the country who came together to agree on industry-led responsible gaming standards. That followed efforts laid out in February by New Jersey’s attorney general and the state Division of Gaming Enforcement, establishing a new Responsible Gaming Initiative to identify and help gamblers at risk of addiction by using data collected by gaming operators about players’ online betting behavior.

In March, the Seton Hall University School of Law’s Fourth Annual Gaming Law, Compliance, and Integrity Bootcamp demonstrated the growing demand to educate about compliance, integrity and ethics in the industry as it drew a record turnout.

“This is a landmark event for the industry,” Bill Pascrell III, faculty member of the bootcamp, and partner at Princeton Public Affairs Group, told NJBIZ at the event. “The Bootcamp has trained countless gaming industry professional in best practices, compliance, and integrity, all of which help make the gambling industry more impactful and responsible.”