AFL orders Sportsbet to stop using players in AI-generated social media content

On October 13, 2026 the AFL told its official gambling partner Sportsbet to stop featuring AFL players in AI-generated social media content without their permission and to delete AI videos that showed players delivering lines from films, television or speeches.

The instruction follows the publication by Sportsbet of age-restricted clips intended to increase social media engagement and attract new audiences and customers. Those videos were posted despite federal legislation that will ban athletes appearing in gambling advertisements, with the new rules due to take effect next year.

One AI clip showed former Brisbane Lions premiership player Lachie Neale at his new club Collingwood accepting an award, with his image manipulated to mimic a 2018 speech by the US rapper Snoop Dogg on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “Last but not least, I want to thank me,” an AI-generated video of Neale said. “I want to thank me for believing in me. I want to thank me for doing all this hard work.”

Another video depicted Brisbane Lions player Will Ashcroft, identified in the article as a dual Norm Smith medallist, shouting a line from the television show Ozark: “If you want to stop me you’re going to have to fucking kill me.” Sportsbet presented that clip as Ashcroft’s response to Fremantle playing “Wharfie Time” in the final quarter of the 2026 AFL grand final.

The videos were removed from Sportsbet’s Instagram page on Tuesday afternoon after the Guardian contacted the company. Sportsbet had also produced AI content using images of Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell and former North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson; while those clips were intended to be humorous, the AFL Players’ Association raised objections and wrote to the league late last week.

The AFLPA argued the material breached the 2023-2027 collective bargaining agreement, which restricts how players’ images can be used by the league’s partners, and noted the agreement makes no mention of AI. Alex Taverner, the AFLPA’s general manager of legal affairs, said: “AI-generated player imagery is not permitted without the players’ approval.”

An AFL spokesperson said the league would “continue to work closely with our partners on the use of AI content and will continue to do so as the technology evolves”. A Sportsbet spokesperson said the company was “always developing content that entertains fans and supports engagement with sport”, adding: “We listen to our partners’ feedback and respond accordingly.” The spokesperson also said: “We’re continuing to work with the AFL on the evolving use of AI in our content, taking account of partner feedback and community expectations.”

Independent ACT senator David Pocock, described in the article as a former professional athlete who focuses on the gambling industry and AI, said the episode exposed the need for more regulation: “AI being used to generate images of elite athletes without their consent to promote harmful gambling products and attempt to buy social license exposes issues with gambling company behaviour as well as the lack of safeguards against deep fakes,” Pocock said. Dr Mark Johnson, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney who has researched social media influencers and gambling, commented: “The most likely explanation is that someone at Sportsbet acted without thinking and never paused to consider how the images of sportspeople are, themselves, often an element of brands and ownership,” Johnson said.

“We raised this with the AFL and advocated for both the removal of the content and a cessation of the use of AI-generated imagery and vision of players without their approval. Importantly, the AFL will now work with Sportsbet to remove the content,” the AFLPA said in its communication to the league.