Betting advertising and sponsorship benefits sport at all levels. It’s time the critics heard the facts
For some months now there has been an ongoing debate about the role of betting advertising in sport. Amid that debate, there are voices on the sidelines demanding extreme measures like outright bans to tackle, what they mistakenly consider, a major challenge. But before anyone jumps two footed into this row, I suggest a strategic breather and a closer look at the facts.
This is an area of intense interest to me, given my enduring passion for sport and football. As a qualified and active referee, I have had the pleasure of officiating the game at different levels for over 42 years - even the occasional Politicians v The Media game at Party Conference (but stories about that are for another time!)
Safe to say I care deeply about football from the grassroots to the elite and international level.
First off, Betting and gaming is a legitimate pastime for huge numbers of us. Around 22.5m people enjoy a flutter each month. Clearly, the overwhelming majority do so without any ill-affects whatsoever - the latest NHS Health Survey for England estimating just 0.4 per cent of all adults suffer with problem gambling.
Meanwhile, sports betting has been part of the history and heritage of the game for as long as it has existed, and now through advertising, sponsorship and funding for grass roots sport, football is benefiting to tune of tens of millions of pounds.
That economic investment flows directly to sports, including football, at every level. The English Football League and its clubs receive £40m a year through advertising and sponsorship. The EFL is sponsored by Sky Bet while this season William Hill signed a record-breaking five-year deal to become title sponsor of all four Scottish Professional Football League divisions.
There are many individual commercial partnerships too including Kindred and Rangers, Liverpool and Ladbrokes, Betway and West Ham plus Stoke and bet365. Crucially, many of these partnerships ensure money flows back into the grassroots game, while ensuring the continued promotion of safer gambling messaging to boost awareness about the help available to the small minority at risk of harm.
Global sports betting brand, Entain, runs ‘Pitching In’ - pushing vital funding into the 248 clubs that make up the Northern Premier, Isthmian and Southern leagues (the Trident Leagues) which make up steps three and four of the national league system. Sky Bet’s EFL partnership launched the ‘Building Foundations Fund’ to breathe new life into grassroots and community football projects across England and Wales; committing £6m over six years for all 72 Clubs for ongoing programmes and to develop new initiatives. While global betting brand Flutter also run the flagship ‘Cash4Clubs’ sports programme, allowing sports organisations across the UK and Ireland to bid for grants of £2,000 a time to improve facilities and purchase new gear. Since ‘Cash4Clubs’ was launched in 2008, £6m has been invested in community sports by Flutter.
In Scotland William Hill’s sponsorship agreement includes a partnership with EPIC, an organisation which will run workshops across all 42 SPFL clubs to educate players and backroom staff on the dangers of gambling harm in the elite sports environment.
Away from football, Betfred makes a huge investment in Rugby League through an extensive partnership, while sports like horse racing, snooker, darts and boxing all receive vital funds though betting sponsorship and advertising deals.
Sports and betting are natural partners and any impartial observer would conclude these companies are making their investment count in a positive way.
That includes on advertising. The industry, working through its trade body, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), has introduced a range of measures to improve advertising standards, which is already strictly regulated. Right now BGC members commit 20 per cent of TV, radio and digital advertising to safer gambling messaging.
In addition, the “whistle to whistle” ban, voluntarily introduced by industry, means ads cannot be shown from five minutes before a live sporting event until five minutes after it ends, before the 9pm watershed. That measure alone led to a 97 per cent reduction in the number of TV betting adverts seen by children during that period.
Ahead of this season the BGC welcomed new Codes of Conduct for sports sponsorship deals across a number of major sporting bodies, significantly raising standards for sports sponsorship deals.
They worked alongside sporting governing bodies including the Premier League, English Football League, The FA, Women’s Super League, Rugby Football League, British Horseracing Authority plus official bodies representing darts, snooker and boxing, to develop sport specific codes of conduct to drive up standards. This groundbreaking new framework sets new standards on safer gambling sponsorship across four key principles of protection, social responsibility, reinvestment and sporting integrity.
On social media, the BGC has brought in new rules to ensure young people are not exposed to betting adverts, with strict age-gating rules for under 18s. Across the board, betting operators are working to strike the balance between advertising their products legitimately, and ensuring those adverts are not seen by children.
Initiatives like this make a difference.
I’ve heard the claims about exposure to betting advertising on those under 18, but the facts tell the true story. Recent data from the Gambling Commission published last year showed young people’s exposure to gambling adverts and promotions had declined compared to the previous year. Of 11-17 year olds, 55 per cent had seen gambling adverts offline, compared to 66 per cent in 2022, and 53 per cent had seen adverts online, compared to 63 per cent in 2022.
All this comes on top of another major fact too often ignored. Research has failed to establish a causal link between exposure to advertising and the development of problem gambling.
Here in the UK we are fortunate to have a well-regulated betting and gaming sector. All told, the sector supports 110,000 jobs, contributes £4.2bn in taxes and generates £7.1bn for the economy.
Appropriate advertising is crucial to ensuring customers can distinguish between regulated operators, and not the growing number of unsafe, unregulated gambling black market sites online.
So, as a humble referee, I suggest that rather than steaming in, why not watch how existing rules are being applied? And any legislator should also always utilise what I was taught as “Law 18” of Association Football - the “apply common sense” law!
If you do this I reckon you’ll see the rules around betting are being followed and the game - and sport in general - is reaping the rewards.
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