The football leagues in England provide many examples of gambling sponsorship, around 15% of all team sponsors are gambling companies. Such a vast presence translates to a worrying question about the visibility of betting advertisements to fans; and as other recent studies demonstrate, the volume of betting messages discerned by fans of football is huge. Most ads shared on social platforms are disguised to resemble actual content, and this makes it even more challenging for the fans, particularly the young people to distinguish between normal content and advertising content. These concerns are well understood by the premier league, hence the recent decision to change the sponsorship policies: bringing in a more proactive policy that the premier league will not employ betting companies as shirt sponsors by 2026. It arises from the cumulative realization on the part of policy makers that fans must be shielded from or spared unfair levels/instances of promotional gambling appeals but at the same time, betting and football can coexist and interrelate harmoniously.
Which league has the most gambling sponsors?
This season, there are currently eight betting businesses whose logos are emblazoned on the jerseys of different Premier League teams, accounting for 40% of the competition’s total teams . This is a formidable challenge as these clubs stand to lose 60 million pounds in annual revenue for these clubs from betting companies, all in a bid to replace funding by the 2026/27 season when the league is set to phase out betting sponsors. In total our study identified 25 different industries across all four English leagues, the second most common as mentioned above being financial services. On the other hand, the English Football League (EFL) witnessed a relatively low level of association with gambling sponsors, 21% of the Championship teams and one team from League One signed with online casino and betting companies. With the Premier League having already voluntarily ’banned’ betting companies, could it be that the major sponsors now begin to move further down the EFL to take advantage of the enhanced coverage and publicity that they used to enjoy in the Prem?
What has been the viewership for teams with gambling sponsors over the past year?
In the 2023/24 football season; front-of-shirt sponsorships are likely to present products that will be seen by 7.5 million viewers as gambling and this shows how much sponsorship partnership is capable of generating. Current market leaders Betway launched their partnership with West Ham in a £63.8m deal, while new partnerships with Aston Villa, Sunderland and Everton could be worth more than £30 m each. Betting sponsors can secure an astonishing 1,246,660 organic views for the entire season with West Ham average home game attendance equal to 62,466 spectators. The study further reveals that front-of-shirt in personally advertised gambling could be worth more than £435M per season. This view does not include the extra views through TV and streaming which translate into millions of even more additional viewers and hence the ad value for these sponsors.
In what ways does the UK differ from other countries?
When looking at the location of betting sponsors across football leagues the UK is especially active, particularly in the English Football League where more than a third of betting sponsors originate from the UK. Internationally the picture is rather different; for example Winamax currently supports only two teams from outside the UK namely the Le Havre AC in France and VfB Stuttgart in Germany. This goes hand in hand with a seemingly lesser visibility of gambling companies’ logos on team shirts in other countries. In the German Bundesliga for instance gambling sponsorship contribution to team sponsorship is at a paltry 5.6% while in the French Ligue1 it stands at 10.5%. Such figures are an indicator of fewer sponsorship activities carried out by gambling entities than UK leagues in which betting sponsorships are incorporated deeper.
Where do companies sponsoring English teams conduct their operations?
Of the 14 betting companies sponsoring British football teams, only 5 operate from England and, even more interesting, 3 of these have websites that cannot be accessed in Britain. This can be seen as a planned approach that these businesses aren’t limited to earning their revenues from the British public but are also using sponsorships to pull in the attention of global followers. Specifically, the identified end-user markets involve the countries with large followership, including the Philippines and Australia that will increase their presence in the global market aside from the UK.
What lies ahead for English football?
Researchers from the University of Bristol have expressed alarm over ‘sequestration and saturation’ of betting-related stimuli in football broadcasts in England. This aggressive advertising is remarkable knowing that 2.3% of the population are problematic gamblers despite the fact that they contribute up to half the market’s earnings. Also the cost to the Government to treat people with gambling problems is estimated at between £1.05 billion to £1.77 billion. Individual Premier League clubs have signed up to eliminate front-of-shirt betting sponsors in the coming seasons but gambling messages will remain in English football through sleeve sponsors, stadium sponsors and team partners. Another concern is social network advertising because often gambling ads look like regular posts, impacting consumers decisions and being especially dangerous for younger audiences. Nevertheless, these risks continue to occur and persistently merge with football imagery, although, the intent to lessen visibility of gambling imagery is a progressive move in altering the gambling consistency of fans and for sanitizing the football viewing modalities.
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