GambleAware: Number of football clubs sponsored by betting firms is 'disturbing'

[The Buzz]

According to a report in The Guardian, nearly 60% of football clubs in England’s top two divisions will have gambling companies on their shirts this season. Same goes for nine of 20 teams in the Premier League and a 17 of 24 teams in the Championship.

This does not sit well with Marc Etches, the chief executive of GambleAware, who said, “I think we are at a tipping point in terms of the relationship between professional sports and gambling.”

“We have a generation of fans who believe you have to bet on football to enjoy it and that is disturbing and concerning. The time is now for a much-needed debate about how we do this. Watching football and having a bet is becoming normalised but we’re not talking about it.”

More from the article:

Etches added that he wrote to all the Premier League clubs about his concerns last year, and praised Crystal Palace for working with GambleAware on a “safer gambling” campaign over three games at the end of last season.

When asked if football was getting too close to the gambling industry, the Premier League declined to comment but is understood to believe it is up to the clubs to decide the companies they agree deals with. Betting firms are not allowed to sponsor clubs’ youth team shirts or for replica shirts sold in children’s sizes.

Sky Bet sponsor all three of the EFL’s divisions but it is the situation in the Championship, where the number of gambling sponsors most concerns charities which deal with the negative consequences of the UK’s £14bn gambling industry.

“This is worrying,” Gambling Watch UK’s Professor Jim Orford told PA Sport. “There is evidence that gambling is becoming ever more normalised, particularly among young people, so that increasingly betting is seen as part and parcel of following and supporting one’s favourite sport or team.”

According to the Gambling Commission’s most recent statistics, there are 430,000 adult problem gamblers in the UK, with a further two million at risk of developing a problem.

Read the entire article here: https://www.theguardian.com/football...nsored-betting

[Cash Bonus]

I really don't understand why this is seen as "disturbing" as they put it. Gambling and sports gambling have been around for so many years and will continue in this way and nothing has really changed about it. I just can't see what will stop them.

[Webzcas]

Since I have been attending football matches from the age of 7, all clubs have always had a bookmaker on site. Shirt sponsorship was bound to be the next step. Be interesting to see how this unfolds over the next couple of years. Will Gambling sponsorship of clubs, go the same way as tobacco advertising? Certainly sounds like it could be moving in that direction

[RacingJim]

Yeh it'll definitely be interesting to see how this unfolds.
I mean, on the one hand, it's our friends at the Guardian, that Lefty Utopian rag that hates gambling and believes people need wrapping in cotton wool and protecting from their own urges.
But on the other hand, that is a LOT of football clubs sponsored by gambling firms.

[holymoly]

It's interesting to observe how they will cope with this. They've got themselves in a tight spot by declaring a war on gambling ads, and shirt sponsorship now looks not so harmless. I'd even say that it looks pretty logical to get rid of sports betting ads on t-shirts (from the perspective of The Guardian's collective mind), as kids watch football, attend games and adore the players. They buy their t-shirts with those betting logos on them! This won't stop sports betting, of course, but will make it way harder to get new players, exactly as it happened with the tobacco industry. Smokers rarely quit, but youngsters prefer not to start anymore.

[Cash Bonus]

You are absolutely right, holymoly. It's never ever going to stop. It's exactly like smoking and tobacco. The governments from all around the world will try and put a stop to it through various advertisements, but it will all be in vain. Sure, that won't stop them from trying though, lol. There have been so many different ways that both gambling and smoking have been tried to be put to an end but the worst possible effect is just putting people off, and it would only be short lived.

[The Buzz]

Right on cue, bet365 signs a deal to sponsor 10 clubs in LaLiga, the top division of Spanish football:

https://www.sportbusiness.com/sport-...-laliga-market