A new study has found that over half of the children’s sections in football club programs feature gambling sponsors. The study looked at programs for 44 Premier League and Championship teams over three periods spanning 18 months and found that 56.8% of dedicated children’s sections contained incidences of gambling marketing, such as shirt logos. Gambling messages were 13 times more common than alcohol marketing or safer gambling messages.
BBC Sport reported Monday that the government might enact a shirt sponsorship ban in this month’s white paper. According to BBC Sport, the government has previously discussed prohibiting shirt sponsorship. The ban proposed could be included in this month’s white paper. Only Premier League clubs would have been banned from having betting sponsors on their shirts under a recently submitted draft white paper. Still, it would be “incoherent” if not also imposed on teams in the English Football League and other forms of sponsorship.
“Researchers and policy-makers should consider that sports fans may be exposed to gambling marketing via a variety of media other than television advertisements,” according to the study by Steve Sharman, Catia Alexandra Ferreira, and Philip Newall.
In their letter, the Gamaliel staff emphasized that gambling marketing was still widespread and potentially dangerous. Those harmed by gaming may find it difficult to avoid seeing this advertising. All types of gaming marketing should be considered while making regulatory adjustments. James Grimes of The Big Step, an organization dedicated to removing gaming advertising and sponsorship from sports events, said, “Sponsors are advertisements for gaming machines, and having so many in a children’s block of a program is not natural or safe.”
“Children should be able to join their clubs without seeing any advertising.”
“Advertising for gambling in football would be halted completely, and youngsters would get far fewer strong nudges to gamble daily.”
According to a recent YouGov poll, 1.4 million people in the United Kingdom are being harmed by gambling, with another 1.5 million at risk. However, the Premier League and EFL dispute any link between betting sponsorship and harmful gaming behaviour.
“The country’s most popular sports, such as the English Football League, generate £40 million each year in revenue from the regulated betting and gaming sector.” according to a Betting and Gaming Council spokesperson.
