Labour were expected to win the 2024 General Election, but the landslide nature of their victory must have taken even members of the party aback somewhat.
One of the new Prime Minister’s first roles was to appoint the Cabinet that will guide him through the next four years of Parliament – including the leader of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
That wide-ranging remit of the DCMS head includes overseeing the gambling industry in the UK – so Lisa Nandy, appointed by Starmer as his new culture secretary, will have plenty on her plate straight off the bat.
And it’s not as if she’s had a great deal of time to prepare. Thangam Debbonaire, the shadow culture secretary prior to the election, actually lost her seat in Bristol to the Green Party – hence the hasty reshuffle that saw Nandy promoted.
Passionate and Principled
Nandy has been the MP for Wigan since 2010, while serving the Labour Party in a series of shadow secretary roles before the election earlier in July.
Things could have been oh so different – Nandy actually stood to be leader of Labour in the race that ultimately saw Starmer being given the top job in 2020, ultimately finishing third with 16.3% of the vote.
Fast forward four years, and it was Starmer who made the call to Nandy to welcome her into the Cabinet as culture, media and sport chief – with that extended remit of looking after the gambling sector too.
The industry has taken the appointment well, with Michael Dugher, the head of the Betting and Gaming Council, offering a glowing reference to his former Labour teammate. He told the Racing Post she is a ‘passionate and principled’ MP, while Tote director Susannah Gill has confirmed that Nandy had visited the firm’s headquarters in Wigan and shared their vision for the redevelopment of the Tote betting brand.
However, before we get carried away on a tidal wave of positivity, it should be noted that Nandy’s voting history in the Commons does not necessarily paint her perception of the gambling sector in the best light….
Doubling Down
You can check out any serving MPs past voting record, and it’s fascinating to note that Nandy has voted for tighter regulations in the gambling sector – not once, twice or thrice, but on four separate occasions!
At a time when bookmakers and punters alike are already starting to feel the pinch of new legislation created via the former government’s White Paper, the general stance of Nandy will lead to a natural conclusion that tighter industry regulation could be on the horizon.
As DCMS lead, she will inherit the Conservatives’ White Paper and its findings, which were born out by both research and the conclusions of periods of consultation with major industry players. For the most part, it was suggested that more could be done to tighten the law and protect vulnerable punters more.
However, there will be a hope that Nandy protects the autonomy of all punters – including those for whom sports betting is a mere hobby and others whose interest is represented by larger stakes and wins/losses.
That’s not an easy middle ground to find, however, and the past voting history of Nandy in the Commons does not instil confidence of a reasoned approach to industry legislation.
Building Bridges
Another of Nandy’s obligations will be to consider the relevance and effectiveness of the UK Gambling Commission.
The current industry regulator has been accused of being too heavy-handed and too light of touch by sector stakeholders – you really can’t please everybody, but at a time when the Commission is actively rolling out their affordability checks model, senior DCMS staff will be watching to see how much value the regulator is adding.
Recently, Commission deputy chief executive Sarah Gardner gave a wide-ranging speech at a KPMG summit. And while all manner of topics came under the spotlight, a section of her discussion was centred around ‘prop bets’, particularly in football, in which the subjective opinion of the bookmaker is how a market is settled, e.g. tackles and passes.
Most bookies use OPTA’s official data when settling bets, but in some cases have been forced to defend themselves after settling wagers as a loss – despite the punter in question sharing evidence, usually in the form of social media video, to suggest they were wrong to do so.
“Whether a shot was taken, was on target, a tackle made and a variety of other micro-markets are ultimately more subjective,” Gardner said.
“Once we introduce concepts which require a human being to make a subjective judgement, we introduce debate and argument.
“Consumers are disputing whether the micro-event, perhaps just a single movement in 90 plus minutes of football, happened or not and that brings all kinds of challenges for regulators, as well as the industry.”
Will the legislation of prop bets and bet builders be high up on Nandy’s to-do list?