It is believed that the government and football clubs would rather address worries about young fans’ exposure to gambling through voluntary measures than impose strict restrictions on advertising in the white paper. The Premier League is rumoured to be planning to remove front-of-shirt sponsors in favour of sleeve gambling logos. Read out the complete details about Premier League gambling sponsor proposals ignore hoardings down below!
Premier League gambling sponsor proposals ignore hoardings.
Pitchside hoardings, which feature the logos of betting companies and are displayed on LED screens throughout games, would also be unaffected by the proposed changes. Researchers from the University of Stirling found that 38% of all exposure to gambling brand names during games occurred in pitchside advertisements. Based on a study of five live-televised matches, it was determined that, on average, viewers would see the logos more than 500 times.
Although the previous study was conducted during the coronavirus pandemic, when advertisements were often extended to cover areas where fans would have sat if they had not been banned from attending live sporting events, the number could be as high as 700. James Grimes, a recovering gambler who founded the Big Step, a campaign group that aims to persuade football clubs to cut ties with gambling sponsors, said, “Action on shirt sponsorship is a welcome and iconic acceptance of the harm caused by gambling ads but in isolation is incoherent and loses impact.”
He said that ads on shirts aren’t the only distraction on the pitch; ‘for every ad on a shirt, there are hundreds more flashing around the pitch.’ There were 31 different gambling brands mentioned in the five games studied by the University of Stirling, with West Ham’s sponsor Betway being the most prominent. Dr. Richard Purves, a senior research fellow at the University of Stirling and the study’s principal investigator, described shirt sponsorship as “a small part of it.”
