5 ms·

I'm interested in this line "Many media outlets are increasingly reliant on money from betting companies" as I'd be interested to know how reliant the Guardian

I'm interested in this line "Many media outlets are increasingly reliant on money from betting companies" as I'd be interested to know how reliant the Guardian was on this revenue. Is stopping this type of advertising a big impact on their top line? I applaud the move either way, but stopping doing something that's 0.1% of your revenue vs something that is 25% are two very different things.

brookst 3y ago
Judging people and companies on motivations rather than actions is kind of a losing game. You can never really know for sure, and it’s easy to speculate in every direction.
- autoexec 3y ago
  It seems inevitable since even when actions are the same, intent really does matter. An adult inviting a child into their home is an action that happens every day, but intent is pretty important. We should speculate in every direction while considering the motivations of a person or company, and we should weigh the likelihood and potential costs of being right or wrong about our suspicions when choosing how to react to events. Blinding ourselves to motivations (actual or possible) is a losing game which will only make us easier to manipulate.
  - brookst 3y ago
    > We should speculate in every direction while considering the motivations of a person or company, and we should weigh the likelihood and potential costs of being right or wrong about our suspicions when choosing how to react to events. Blinding ourselves to motivations (actual or possible) is a losing game which will only make us easier to manipulate. Totally disagree, especially for companies. Companies are usually thousands of people. Any action was probably hotly debated, and some agreed and some opposed. It's just silly to treat a company like an individual person who has good motivations and bad motivations. You do you, but I don't think making up motivations and then acting like they're true makes anyone less easy to manipulate.
rvz 3y ago
They won't tell you, or give an exact figure, other than this nonsense: > Guardian Media Group increasingly relies on contributions directly from readers, rather than advertising, for its income. Which is no wonder they 'seem' to be continuously begging their readers to pay. Now after this, I should expect them to be begging even more aggressively, unless someone is funding them grants or what not, since they are still not telling us something or giving an exact figure. Either way, one-sided publications like the Guardian is hardly worth paying for regardless.
- mnd999 3y ago
  I pay for the Guardian and I think it’s easily worth the money.
  - ekianjo 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - throwaway290 3y ago
      Its called "you give people who do good money so they do more good". The alternative is called "you are the product".
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - matthewmacleod 3y ago
      Jesus, come on. Isn't this just called "paying for a product that you think offers some value"? Do we need to pathologise literally everything?
- zztop44 3y ago
  The Australian operation of the Guardian has said recently that donations from readers are now more than 50% of the revenue. And they’re trying to increase that percentage further. Not sure about their UK or US operations.
zzbn00 3y ago
I don't know about Guardian specifically, but marketing spend is a big part of what the gambling companies do: e.g. GVC spent about £500million on marketing in 2019 https://entaingroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GVC-2019-Annual-Report-and-Accounts.pdf https://entaingroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GVC-2019-...
iso1631 3y ago
I doubt Guardian is as reliant as say Sky is. Betting is pretty much the primary driver of revenue for their sports coverage, and indeed football as a whole. It seems half of premier teams have some form of betting company on their shirt -- often aimed at those in the far east Although I see that's on the way out https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65260002 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65260002 And good riddance too https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/65601190 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/65601190
- fredley 3y ago
  Sky as in Sky Bet? https://skybet.com/ https://skybet.com/
  - Mindwipe 3y ago
    Sky Bet is a different company to Sky, they set it up and sold it along with the branding rights. But obviously it does create a perception of conflict of interest...
topicseed 3y ago
The Telegraph seems to get quite a bit of revenue from their gambling content. An example is https://www.telegraph.co.uk/betting/casino-guides/blackjack/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/betting/casino-guides/blackjack/ It's just odd to have this on a trusted national newspaper. Feels very out of place.
- nervysnail 3y ago
  Depravity.
  - lost_tourist 3y ago
    Gambling is depravity? What? Has HN suddenly become a puritanical news site or something?
    - nervysnail 3y ago
      Nay, you are wrong to think that I am a Puritan. It is just that the website is horrible and I used 'depravity' in a humorous sense.
carlosjobim 3y ago
If you run a successful blog or similar, you will start getting offers from gambling companies wanting to purchase advertising and articles. These are legitimate offers and they pay well - even if your content is very local or narrow, such as citizen journalism. Gambling is an extremely profitable business, and they want as many customers as possible. Expect their advertising to only grow.

brookst 3y ago

Judging people and companies on motivations rather than actions is kind of a losing game. You can never really know for sure, and it’s easy to speculate in every direction.

autoexec 3y ago
It seems inevitable since even when actions are the same, intent really does matter. An adult inviting a child into their home is an action that happens every day, but intent is pretty important. We should speculate in every direction while considering the motivations of a person or company, and we should weigh the likelihood and potential costs of being right or wrong about our suspicions when choosing how to react to events. Blinding ourselves to motivations (actual or possible) is a losing game which will only make us easier to manipulate.
- brookst 3y ago
  > We should speculate in every direction while considering the motivations of a person or company, and we should weigh the likelihood and potential costs of being right or wrong about our suspicions when choosing how to react to events. Blinding ourselves to motivations (actual or possible) is a losing game which will only make us easier to manipulate. Totally disagree, especially for companies. Companies are usually thousands of people. Any action was probably hotly debated, and some agreed and some opposed. It's just silly to treat a company like an individual person who has good motivations and bad motivations. You do you, but I don't think making up motivations and then acting like they're true makes anyone less easy to manipulate.

rvz 3y ago

They won't tell you, or give an exact figure, other than this nonsense: > Guardian Media Group increasingly relies on contributions directly from readers, rather than advertising, for its income. Which is no wonder they 'seem' to be continuously begging their readers to pay. Now after this, I should expect them to be begging even more aggressively, unless someone is funding them grants or what not, since they are still not telling us something or giving an exact figure. Either way, one-sided publications like the Guardian is hardly worth paying for regardless.

mnd999 3y ago
I pay for the Guardian and I think it’s easily worth the money.
- ekianjo 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - throwaway290 3y ago
    Its called "you give people who do good money so they do more good". The alternative is called "you are the product".
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - matthewmacleod 3y ago
    Jesus, come on. Isn't this just called "paying for a product that you think offers some value"? Do we need to pathologise literally everything?
zztop44 3y ago
The Australian operation of the Guardian has said recently that donations from readers are now more than 50% of the revenue. And they’re trying to increase that percentage further. Not sure about their UK or US operations.

zzbn00 3y ago

I don't know about Guardian specifically, but marketing spend is a big part of what the gambling companies do: e.g. GVC spent about £500million on marketing in 2019 https://entaingroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GVC-2019-Annual-Report-and-Accounts.pdf https://entaingroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GVC-2019-...

iso1631 3y ago

I doubt Guardian is as reliant as say Sky is. Betting is pretty much the primary driver of revenue for their sports coverage, and indeed football as a whole. It seems half of premier teams have some form of betting company on their shirt -- often aimed at those in the far east Although I see that's on the way out https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65260002 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65260002 And good riddance too https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/65601190 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/65601190

fredley 3y ago
Sky as in Sky Bet? https://skybet.com/ https://skybet.com/
- Mindwipe 3y ago
  Sky Bet is a different company to Sky, they set it up and sold it along with the branding rights. But obviously it does create a perception of conflict of interest...

topicseed 3y ago

The Telegraph seems to get quite a bit of revenue from their gambling content. An example is https://www.telegraph.co.uk/betting/casino-guides/blackjack/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/betting/casino-guides/blackjack/ It's just odd to have this on a trusted national newspaper. Feels very out of place.

nervysnail 3y ago
Depravity.
- lost_tourist 3y ago
  Gambling is depravity? What? Has HN suddenly become a puritanical news site or something?
  - nervysnail 3y ago
    Nay, you are wrong to think that I am a Puritan. It is just that the website is horrible and I used 'depravity' in a humorous sense.

carlosjobim 3y ago

If you run a successful blog or similar, you will start getting offers from gambling companies wanting to purchase advertising and articles. These are legitimate offers and they pay well - even if your content is very local or narrow, such as citizen journalism. Gambling is an extremely profitable business, and they want as many customers as possible. Expect their advertising to only grow.