With The Championship, across the water, underway and even the Community Shield between the two Manchester sides kicking-off later today, the eyes of many fans will be attracted to their club’s fancy new kit for the 2024-2025 season. And for many sides, across all the leagues, an advertising logo promoting a betting company will be an integral part of the shirt design.
The perennial concern about betting company’s influence on the sport and the effect gambling has on fans and players was commented on by The Guardian recently, noting that after several years of declining sponsorships deals from betting firms, the number of Premier League teams sporting gambling sponsors on their shirts has suddenly shot up from eight, last season, to 11 for the season ahead.
Against the Flow
The increase in sponsorship deal came despite top-flight clubs agreeing to restrict betting sponsorships last April. But that is not set to take effect until the 2026-27 season and with it still being two years away, clubs have continued to strike deals with gambling firms, including cryptocurrency casinos and Asian betting companies.
Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brentford, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Leicester, Nottingham Forest, Southampton, West Ham and Wolves will all be displaying a gambling company on the front of their shirts. While the remaining clubs will all have deals with gambling firms as ‘official club betting sponsors’ even if it is not emblazoned on the front of the shirt.
It seems that betting firms are eagerly rushing to get their sponsorship deals completed and football clubs equally happy to garner the revenue before the ban shuts it down in two years’ time.
Spain, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands have had bans on sports betting sponsorship for a number of years but plans to rein-in the role betting firms have on sports have been much slower to come into effect in Britain and Ireland. Proposed gambling legislation limiting the scope of betting firm’s advertising and sponsorship reach is going through the Dáil now, but ministers and politicians are constantly being lobbied by betting companies eager to explain how the removal of sponsorship would dramatically affect the revenues of already struggling sports clubs and charities.
And this may be so, clubs always struggle to make ends meet. But it can’t be at the expense of participant’s lives and livelihoods. And it seems the problem is getting worse.
An ESRI report from last year showed that Ireland’s gambling problem is far worse than previously thought, with 130,000 people considered problem gamblers, a figure 10 times higher than previous estimates. A further 7% of the population show ‘moderate’ evidence of a gambling problem, while a further 590,000 people reporting some problematic gambling experiences or behaviours.
And while the danger to punters and fans of the game is pretty well documented, little on the impact betting has on players has been investigated.
Irish Problem
Former Armagh Gaelic Football star Oisín McConville has bravely spoken in public of his own gambling problem, recorded on these pages, which started while he was a player, and some of the best research in player gambling here has been conducted in the field of Gaelic games.
In a 2019 MTU study on problem gambling on young sports stars and amateur sporting organisations, it found that according to the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) of the GAA, Irish people, in general, are estimated to gamble over €5 billion per year; that’s €14 million per day or €10,000 per minute for figures in 2018. In 2017, gambling addiction made up 33% of the cases that presented by players with addictive problems to the GPA counselling service for treatment.
This trouble among amateur sports people is exponentially worse among professional players. Betting among Premier League stars are now legendary, with most football fans anecdotally knowing about extraordinary bets wagered by professional football stars with more money and time on their hands than sense.
Ridiculous bets on card games, horse-racing and golf challenges have all entered popular lore. Only for the same names to crop up again years after their retirement being mentioned in debtors court or bankruptcy negotiations.
The bored young rich men of professional football, living an adrenaline-filled life on the field find their down time long and extremely boring and so use betting to give them the kind of thrill they experience while they play.
Threat to the Game
As bad as extravagant bets are outside the game, it is way worse when the money is wagered on your own sport, potentially raising possible issues of corruption in the game and questions on the validity of results, undermining the game completely.
England international Ivan Toney had 262 charges on breaches to gambling laws brought against him by the FA. Last year, he was found guilty of the charges and banned for eight months from the game and fined £50,000. It is said that Toney bet 126 times on games in the same competitions he was playing in, and 29 times on his team’s games. He bet 13 times on his own team to lose but did not play in any of those games. And so escaped match-fixing charges.
With gambling often practiced behind closed doors, how sure are we though that Toney is not just the tip of the iceberg? And how willing are players, with problems, to bet against their own side and actively assist result go against their team while ‘playing a shocker’ on the field?
Betting on a Brighter Future
The rise of betting sponsorships in football raises serious questions about the sport's future. While clubs welcome the financial boost, the potential risks to players, fans, and the integrity of the game cannot be ignored. It's time for a serious conversation about balancing commercial interests with the well-being of those involved in the beautiful game.
