Gambling Firms Share User Data with Facebook without Permission

Gambling firms secretly track guests on their websites and share user data with Meta, Facebook’s parent company. According to sportsbook pay per head reports, the latter does so without the users’ consent. Meta is using the data to profile people as gamblers and provide them with targeted ads for betting sites and casinos.

A hidden tracking tool embedded in dozens of UK gambling websites has been extracting visitors’ data—including details of the web pages they view and the buttons they click—and sharing it with a social media company.

By law, data should only be used and shared for marketing purposes, with explicit permission obtained from users on the websites in which the tools are embedded. But the Observer tested 150 gambling sites—including virtual casinos, sports betting sites, and online bingo—and found widespread breaches of the rules.

Gambling Firms Share User Data with Meta

Network traffic analysis revealed that 52 out of 150 websites examined by the Observer automatically exchanged data via the Meta Pixel tracking technology without explicit agreement. Sites including Hollywoodbets, Bwin, Sporting Index, Lottoland, Bet442, and 10Bet were discovered to have sent data to Facebook without authorization.

Before the user clicked to accept or reject the marketing, data transmission occurred automatically as the page loaded. The reporter understood and consented to using their data for marketing throughout the trial.

After the illegal data exchange, they began receiving a deluge of gambling-related Facebook adverts, suggesting that Meta had profiled them as someone interested in gambling.

Advertising for 49 gaming companies appeared to them in a single session, not only on websites that had illegally shared their data. Some betting firms involved were Ladbrokes, Sky Bet, BetVictor, Tombola, and Bet365, along with dozens of smaller brands. The sportsbook management teams of these companies were unaware of the illegal data sharing and used Meta Pixel in a permissible way.

Gambling Offers

You could win up to five thousand times your initial wager in a gold blitz, and there was a new player promotion with a 200% bonus. Other offerings included free bets. A broader probe into the targeting of gamblers is being called for, and details on the data sharing and profiling have emerged. Bonne Terre Ltd, doing business as Sky Betting & Gaming, was scolded in September by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for using advertising cookies to collect personal information about individuals without their consent. During that period, the brand expressed remorse for a technological problem that has now been fixed.

Sky Betting & Gaming obtained a large amount of data on an individual with a gambling issue after sending over 1,300 marketing emails, according to a different case highlighted last week in the Observer. Since the man’s gambling constituted an addiction, the top court reasoned that he lacked the mental capacity to provide his informed permission, therefore finding the data usage illegal. The corporation is contemplating an appeal and stated that it has made substantial adjustments since the claimant’s experience in 2017–19, yet it disagrees with the verdict.

The Gambling Commission has banned cross-selling, promoting other products or services to an existing customer base. However, marketers can explore other consumer recruitment strategies, including third-party profiling services like Meta. Here are some things to know before becoming a bookie.

Previous coverage of meta-pixel abuse in the Observer came from industries such as NHS trusts that unknowingly disclosed private patient information. You must use tracking pixels honestly, lawfully, and openly. Last year, the ICO said that it was conducting a comprehensive examination of tracking pixels. If necessary, the agency would not hesitate to take enforcement action, which could result in fines of up to £500,000.

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