AFL Tells Sportsbet to Remove AI Videos of Players Made Without Their Consent

The league's official wagering partner has deleted AI-generated clips of Lachie Neale and Will Ashcroft after the players' union complained and Guardian Australia asked about them. From 1 January, Australian law will stop licensed bookmakers featuring athletes in wagering advertising whether the athletes consent or not.

• The AFL has told Sportsbet, its official wagering partner, to stop featuring players in AI-generated social media content without their permission and to delete the videos already posted, Guardian Australia reported on 13 October
• The clips showed Lachie Neale reciting Snoop Dogg's 2018 Hollywood Walk of Fame speech and Will Ashcroft shouting a line from Ozark, and Sportsbet also made AI content using coaches Sam Mitchell and Alastair Clarkson
• The AFL Players' Association (AFLPA) told the league the videos breached the 2023 to 2027 collective bargaining agreement, which lets Sportsbet use player images in limited circumstances but makes no mention of AI
• Sportsbet removed the videos from Instagram after Guardian Australia contacted it and says it is working with the AFL on "the evolving use of AI in our content"
• From 1 January 2027 the federal gambling reform passed in August bars licensed bookmakers from featuring current or former athletes, celebrities, influencers and prominent individuals in wagering advertising, with a civil penalty of 1,000 penalty units per contravention

Sportsbet Deletes the Clips After the Players' Union Complains

The AFL has told Sportsbet to stop featuring its players in AI-generated social media content without their permission and to delete videos showing AFL figures delivering lines from films, television shows or speeches in reaction to real events, according to an exclusive report by Henry Belot of Guardian Australia. The videos were age-restricted and designed to lift Sportsbet's social media engagement with new audiences and customers, the Guardian reported. Sportsbet removed them from Instagram on the afternoon of Tuesday 13 October, after Guardian Australia contacted it.

One video showed Neale, a former Brisbane Lions premiership player, accepting an award at his new club, Collingwood, manipulated so that he appeared to recite the speech Snoop Dogg gave on receiving his Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2018: "I want to thank me for believing in me." Another showed Ashcroft, the Brisbane Lions player and dual Norm Smith medallist, shouting an expletive-laden line from Ozark, presented as his response to Fremantle playing "Wharfie Time" in the final quarter of the 2026 grand final. Sportsbet also made AI content using the Hawthorn coach, Sam Mitchell, and the former North Melbourne coach, Alastair Clarkson.

The AFLPA wrote to the league late last week arguing that the videos breached the collective bargaining agreement, which restricts how the league's partners can use players' images. "AI-generated player imagery is not permitted without the players' approval," said Alex Taverner, its general manager of legal affairs, adding that "the AFL will now work with Sportsbet to remove the content." The 2023 to 2027 agreement allows Sportsbet to use player images and vision without permission in certain circumstances and with restrictions, and makes no mention of AI, the Guardian reported. The default is long-standing: in 2023 The Age reported, as summarised by GamblingNews, that the wagering partner could use players' images unless they opted out, and that few had.

An AFL spokesperson said the league would "continue to work closely with our partners on the use of AI content". Sportsbet, which Flutter Entertainment describes as its market-leading Australian brand, said it listens to partners' feedback and responds accordingly. Independent senator David Pocock said the case exposed "the lack of safeguards against deep fakes".

The Law That Arrives on 1 January

The Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Act 2026 passed Parliament on 19 August and received Royal Assent on 26 August, and its advertising restrictions commence on 1 January 2027, according to the Act on the Federal Register of Legislation. It defines a notable person as a current or former professional sports player or athlete, celebrity, social media influencer or prominent individual, whether in Australia or abroad.

Under section 62W, a licensed bookmaker that authorises or causes wagering advertising content to be broadcast or provided on an online content service, which includes social media, when a notable person "is featured or represented, or can be seen or heard" in connection with it faces a civil penalty of 1,000 penalty units for each instance. A second limb bars new sponsorship arrangements with notable people from that date. Content counts as wagering advertising if it has the purpose or likely effect of promoting a licensed wagering service and is made by or for the bookmaker. The section's only specific exception is for racing content on dedicated racing channels. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which will enforce the rules, says it will publish guidance before commencement.

Consent Was the Union's Complaint, but It Will Not Be the Legal Test

The AFLPA's objection rests on permission, which a consent process for AI content could in principle fix. The law arriving in 11 weeks does not ask about permission. Section 62W turns on whether an athlete is "featured or represented", and nothing in it separates a filmed player from a synthetic one, or a willing ambassador from an unwitting one. The open question is whether a joke clip on a bookmaker's own feed is wagering advertising content at all, and the Act's test of purpose or likely effect, made by or for the bookmaker, points one way. ACMA and ultimately a court will decide, but any bookmaker building social content around recognisable players is betting the answer is no.

The Bargaining Agreement Was Written Before Anyone Could Fake a Player

An agreement that permits partner use of player images in set circumstances and says nothing about AI leaves a gap that each side now reads differently. Its successor will be negotiated against generative tools that can put any words in a player's mouth and a statute that sharply limits what a wagering partner can do with player imagery. The pressure is not unique to Australia: an offshore casino used a deepfake of Alphonso Davies's father to sell to Albertans, and US lawmakers are pressing FanDuel over the celebrity videos it sent to VIP bettors. A recognisable face is the most valuable asset in gambling marketing, and rules written for filmed endorsements did not anticipate synthetic ones.

A Partner Testing the Edges Weeks Before They Move

The reform is already a compromise. The 2023 parliamentary inquiry chaired by Peta Murphy, You win some, you lose more, recommended a phased, comprehensive ban on online gambling advertising within three years; Parliament legislated restrictions instead. Crossbench critics, Pocock among them, are pressing for more, most recently by backing a Northern Territory bill to ban bonus bets. The league's own wagering partner publishing AI clips of star players weeks before the athlete restriction starts hands them a ready example, and gives ACMA an obvious place to look in January.

Sportsbet pulled the videos after a journalist's call, which answers the players' complaint but not the question behind it. From 1 January, whether a synthetic player counts as a featured one will be for the regulator to decide, not the partnership.