The Dubious Relationship between Football & Gambling Business
England football plays a significant role in international football. Among all major European football leagues, the Premier League is the most famous and most valuable one. It is not surprising to see gambling brand as a title sponsor on Premier League or on the Football League Championship team. More than half of the Premier League team has partnered with a gambling company. It’s even more on the English Football League Championship. 17 out of 20 teams have been sponsored by a gambling company. Yet the English Football League Championship itself is a title sponsored by SkyBet.
Besides home kit jerseys, gambling companies often like to sponsor on the stadium or Grandstand. One good example is that the owner of Stoke City Football Club is the Coates Family where they also own BET365. By all means, their home ground is also owned by BET365 and it is named after the brand as well. You will see all their branding around the stadium and it’s being broadcast whenever there is a match being held there.
Advertisement is very important for gambling business in football leagues or matches. However, most gambling related ads has been suspended in and out of matches due to the exposure to youngster audience and it has brought the attention of authority. Although ads during the match has been suspended audience will still see those ads before or after the match on most of the media channels. Recently, the Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) has suspended video from West Ham’s title sponsor Betway being advertise on Youtube. This is because the 20 years old footballer Declan Rice was being featured in the video. It’s difficult to avoid youngsters or those below age 21 to watch gambling related ads, as those gambling companies keep spending big chunks of money on all kinds of media ads.
In addition, gambling companies often like to customize deals with footballers or teams. A good example would be the former England captain Wayne Rooney. He was wearing a red jersey with no.32 when he joined Derby County to collaborate with the brand 32Red. Not only European gambling companies, Asian based companies have also planned to sponsor football events or teams. Football and gambling has a relentless relationship where both of them can create great business opportunities by providing great entertainment to their fans and players.
