Inside Sponsorship

Throughout the world we have seen tobacco sponsorship and alcohol sponsorship banned or curbed in most markets and, right now, the sponsorship industry is watching the UK after a House of Lords Select Committee on gambling recommended that not only should gambling shirt sponsorship be banned by 2023, but “there should also be no gambling advertising in or near any sports grounds or sports venues”. The review is driven by concern at the number of problem gamblers, which is estimated at 430,000 in Britain, and which has seen the losses of punters rocket to £14.4 billion per year in 2019; that’s almost US$20 billion. Of course, the pervasiveness of betting in sport, and football in particular, is there for all to see and certainly a driving factor. It seems surprising that gambling has avoided the spotlight for so long. It may, in some part, be due to the rapid rise of online gambling which has developed at a breakneck speed. Interestingly, however, the opposite is happening in the US with betting sponsorships