By Chris Bunn
IN the past decade, we have seen a staggering colonisation of UK football by gambling companies. Within Scottish football, you do not have to look hard to see the evidence. Ladbrokes has purchased naming rights for Scotland’s Premiership, Championship, League 1 and League 2. William Hill sponsors the Scottish Football Association Cup and the home of Scottish football, Hampden. The League Cup takes the name, Betfred Cup.
In England, the situation is a little different. In a synergistic move, Sky Bet has put its name to the Football League competitions that it also holds broadcasting rights to: from the Championship, down to League 2. In contrast, the wealthy Premier League has opted not to sell name right to the title, but shirt sponsorship from gambling companies has grown dramatically since 2005 among its member clubs. In our work, we identified four shirt sponsorship deals between English Premier League clubs and gambling companies before 2005. After 2005, we found 75.
Why is 2005 so important? In 2005, the UK Government passed new legislation intended to update our gambling laws for the internet age. As part of this legislation, advertising laws were relaxed and gambling advertisements could be shown before the 9pm watershed when part of a live sports broadcast. This legislation produced a new advertising landscape that was untested.
Gambling companies responded to this new legislation by seeking greater visibility in a market they anticipated would grow rapidly. Shirt and league sponsorships are just the surface in this great land-grab. On the connected and brand-saturated world of social media, football clubs promote their “official gambling partners” by sharing posts, offering promotional bets and odds, and sharing exclusive (branded) footage. Among this are and various inducements/commands to “bet now”, often supported by hyper-masculine images and language.
The question that faces us as a society is: do we want this level of involvement from gambling companies in football? The Gambling Commission, the industry regulator, estimates 430,000 people in the UK are considered to have a serious habit, with a further two million considered to be at risk.
What role does football sponsorship play in these gambling careers? Continued public debate is needed on these and related questions. The fans, the clubs and the governing bodies should all have a voice in this discussion.
Dr Chris Bunn is from the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow
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