Nine English Premier League clubs are set to display gambling company logos on their shirts over the upcoming 2023/2024 season in a move described as “hugely disappointing”.
After analysing the new clubs’ kits for the upcoming season, a charitable organisation noted that it was too extraordinary to believe that top-tier football clubs were still reliant on money given to them by gambling operators in return for popularising their services aimed at exploiting vulnerable fans. According to Christian Action Research and Education (CARE), which looked at the English Premier League football clubs’ new season kits, the unstoppable exposure of football fans to gambling marketing is quite harmful, especially when it comes to problem gamblers who find it hard to control their gambling habits.
Reportedly, seven EPL clubs will feature gambling operators as their main shirt sponsors – Fulham, Everton, Aston Villa, Brentford, Bournemouth, West Ham, and Burnley – while Crystal Palace and Wolves will display gambling companies’ loso on their shirt sleeves.
In April 2023, EPL clubs collectively agreed to withdraw gambling companies as their front-of-match shirt sponsors but their decision will be brought into effect at the end of the 2025/2026 season. After the change takes effect, top-tier football clubs will still be able to display gambling brands on their shirt sleeves.
Charity Organisation Insists on Full Ban on Gambling Sponsorships in Football
After seeing the English Premier League clubs’ new kits, CARE’s chief executive officer Ross Hendry shared that it was greatly disappointing for everyone working in the charity to see such a large number of premier football clubs still making sponsorship agreements with gambling operators. He noted that gambling addiction has been a huge concern in the UK for years, with research showing that people who wager on sports were more vulnerable to potential gambling-related harm.
Mr Hendry also shared that many clubs in the EPL have already turned down their partnerships with big gambling companies in a move to stop promoting an industry that fully depends on customer loss to generate profit, and prioritises profit to people’s well-being. According to CARE’s boss, gambling sponsorships should be suspended to make sure vulnerable football fans are protected against gambling-related harm. He further noted that the commitment to put an end to front-shirt sponsorship fell short of a full ban on gambling and cutting its association with sports, not to mention that the voluntary withdrawal of gambling companies’ logos from shirts’ fronts would not take effect for a few more years.
As previously reported by Casino Guardian, in April, the UK Government announced plans to tackle gambling addiction as part of the largest overhaul of the sector’s regulations in a decade and a half. At the time, British lawmakers revealed that gambling operators will be required to enhance their customers’ checks in an effort to ensure better protection for customers who are unable to afford to lose money on gambling.
In its White Paper on gambling, published at the end of April, the UK Government shared plans to implement £2-to-£15 maximum stakes for slot machines available online for all customers. Furthermore, the country’s lawmakers plan to introduce a new statutory levy that will require gambling operators to provide more funding for research, education, prevention, and treatment of gambling addiction. Some anti-gambling campaigners have also called for the Government to fully suspend gambling sponsorship and gambling advertising in sports but, for the time being, the planned changes do not involve such harsh measures against the sector.
New Study Finds over 3,500 Gambling Firm Logos Displayed in a Single Football Match in 2022/2023 Season
The close connection between football and gambling, and the heavy promotion of betting as part of the game has become increasingly controversial in the last few years, especially after reports of some high-profile cases of football players suffering from problem gambling behaviour. As Casino Guardian previously reported, the Brentford striker Ivan Toney faced an eight-month suspension from the game earlier in 2023 after being found to have placed wagers on football games.
Recently, a study headed by psychology experts from four universities across the UK measured the gambling adverts volume during 10 matches that took place in the 2022/2023 season, featuring every club from the English Premier League. Eventually, the research revealed that betting company logos were displayed 3,500 times during the course of a football match aired on TV.
The largest number of betting companies’ logos – a total of 3,522 – was featured during the West Ham vs Chelsea fixture, or, in other words, 37 times for every minute of the game. As explained by the researchers, a gambling logo is displayed every 16 seconds in an average televised football match.
After the results of the study, which also reviewed cryptocurrency and financial trading adverts, were made public, a spokesperson for The Big Step – a campaigner group aimed at putting an end to the association between football and gambling – explained that football clubs were obviously not taking gambling’s proven links to addiction, suicide, and financial problems seriously enough.
So far, the English Premier League has not commented on the report’s findings. Representatives of the local gambling industry, on the other hand, have repeatedly claimed there was no evidence that gambling advertising in football and problem gambling were linked, although multiple studies have asserted a connection between increasing gambling participation rates, including gambling addiction rates, and football clubs’ sponsorship deals.
- Author
Olivia Cole
