Sportsbet’s AI Slop Gets Pulled – And Not Before Time

So the AFL has finally found its voice and told its own gambling partner to pull its head in. Sportsbet has been ordered to stop sticking our players into AI-generated videos without so much as asking them first.

About time, if you ask me.

What actually happened here?

Word is Sportsbet had been running AI-generated content featuring AFL stars – including a video depicting Lachie Neale saying something along the lines of ‘I want to thank me for believing in me’. Cute. Funny, maybe, for about four seconds. But it’s not Neale’s voice, it’s not his words, and nobody asked him if he wanted to be turned into a meme machine for a betting company.

The AFL has reportedly told Sportsbet to delete that stuff and knock it off going forward, including videos where players are made to ‘react’ to real footy events using lines from movies or TV shows they never actually said. Sportsbet, for its part, says it’s working with the AFL ‘on the evolving use of AI in our content’. Which is corporate speak for ‘yeah righto, we’ll pull it down, don’t make a big thing of it’.

Players never signed up for this

Here’s the bit that gets me. These blokes put their bodies on the line every week for our entertainment. They don’t sign up to have their face and voice recreated by a computer program and put in some gambling ad they never agreed to.

Would you be happy if a company took your photo, made you say something you never said, and stuck it on social media to flog a product? Didn’t think so.

It doesn’t matter if its harmless and a bit of a laugh. The principle stands. A player’s likeness is theirs. Their voice is theirs. You don’t just borrow it because the technology lets you.

The gambling problem nobody wants to properly fix

Now let’s be honest about the bigger picture, because this isn’t really about AI at the end of the day. Its about how deep gambling advertising has its claws into our game.

Sportsbet is the AFL’s official wagering partner. That relationship brings in serious money for the league. Meanwhile we’ve got kids watching the footy with their olds and getting bombarded with odds updates during every break. We’ve got blokes ringing Lifeline because theyve lost the house on a multi. And now we’ve got AI deepfakes of our stars thanking themselves in fake acceptance speeches to flog more bets.

Carn the Pies, but also – carn, AFL, sort yourselves out.

I’m not naive. I know the broadcast deal and the sponsorship dollars keep the game running, keep the grassroots funded, keep the competition healthy. But there’s a difference between having a gambling partner and letting that partner run wild with your players’ identities using tech that’s basically still the wild west.

Why this should worry every club, not just the AFL

Think about this from a Collingwood angle for a second. Imagine it was Nick Daicos or Jordan De Goey getting AI-generated and made to say something daft to push a bet. Our members would be up in arms. The club would be fielding calls all day. And fairly so.

This isn’t a one-club issue though. Every supporter group should be paying attention here, because it could just as easily be your star midfielder or your captain next time. The technology is getting better and cheaper by the month. If the AFL doesn’t draw a hard line now, this stuff multiplies.

And once it’s out there, good luck getting it fully off the internet. Deleting one video doesn’t mean its gone for good. That’s the uncomfortable truth about anything posted online, AI or not.

Is this actually enforceable?

Here’s my worry. The AFL can tell Sportsbet to stop. Sportsbet can say sure, no worries, we’re deleting it. But what happens six months from now when some marketing exec reckons a new AI clip of a player ‘reacting’ to a grand final siren will go off on socials?

Who’s actually checking? Is there a proper policy in writing, with real consequences, or is this just a please-explain that gets forgotten once the headlines die down?

The AFL Players Association should be all over this too. Player image rights are a big deal in other sports overseas, and it feels like footy here is only just waking up to how serious it could become. A quick apology and a deleted video is a nice start. It’s not a solution.

Where to from here

I reckon this needs to go further than just Sportsbet getting a slap on the wrist. The AFL should be setting out clear, public rules about AI and player likeness – for every partner, every sponsor, every broadcaster. Not just when a journo happens to ask the right question and it becomes an exclusive story.

Players deserve certainty that their face and voice won’t be hijacked by a computer program for someone else’s commercial gain. Fans deserve to know the difference between something real and something generated by AI, especially when it’s dressed up to look like genuine reaction content.

And honestly, the AFL needs to have a good hard look at how cosy it’s gotten with gambling money full stop. This AI stunt is just the latest symptom of a much bigger problem that’s been building for years.

Good on the AFL for stepping in this time. But I won’t be popping the champagne until there’s an actual enforceable policy, not just a quiet word and a deleted video. Watch this space – I reckon we haven’t heard the last of this one.

Carn the Pies.