'Love Island SA' loses LottoStar as a sponsor

The cast of 'Love Island SA'. Picture: YouTube Screenshot

The cast of 'Love Island SA'. Picture: YouTube Screenshot

Published Mar 2, 2021

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LottoStar has announced that they have pulled out as sponsor for “Love Island SA”.

On Monday, lottery games website LottoStar announced that they had pulled out their sponsorship of “Love Island SA” following the backlash from the premiere’s lack of diversity and bad production.

Taking to Twitter, the director of LottoStar announced the withdrawal and said: “LottoStar has taken the decision to respectfully withdraw its sponsorship of Love Island SA.

“We wish the show and its contestants every success.”

This comes after the show was roasted online on Sunday night as the premiere episode was plagued with production problems and was called out for its lack of diversity.

A statement sent to IOL Entertainment by a DStv spokesperson regarding the criticism said: “We pride ourselves in reflecting diversity and inclusion for all our shows, including ’Love Island’.

“The many channels and thousands of program hours we produce are a testament to this.”

The spokesperson said the show would feature more diversity as more islanders entered the villa.

"Viewers can be assured that this will become more apparent in future episodes of ’Love Island SA’.

“We hope viewers will keep watching to enjoy the new stars of the show who will be arriving over the next few days."

Speaking about the sound and video issues that plagued the first episode, the spokesperson said: "We understand viewers' disappointment in relation to the production quality and would like to apologise for the technical issues experienced on Sunday and are working really hard to resolve them."

On Monday, the second episode aired and, while many viewers noticed an improvement in the editing of the show, issues remained.

These included an ad break countdown timer which appeared before and after many ad breaks, sound and editing problems and cameramen being visible in certain scenes.

IOL Entertainment has reached to DStv regarding a statement about LottoStar pulling out and is waiting for a reply.

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