Following news of the Premier League gambling sponsorship ban, Jon Bruford queries whether this is at best belated and at worst ineffective.
In an unsurprising move, the English Premier League has collectively agreed to remove gambling sponsorship from the front of clubs’ match day shirts.
For those not interested in sports, this is football (soccer) and the Premier League is one of the most watched professional leagues of any sport, anywhere in the world.
This will certainly be met with smiles by most of the industry’s critics but, let’s face it, this is a largely pointless move made by the league so they don’t lose all the revenue from gambling. It’s placatory at best, pointless at worst. Why?
That’s a great question and one I’m glad you asked. But where do we begin?
The gambling industry – and its critics – has recognised that advertising around sport is potentially a problem for quite a while. Even those industry guardians the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) have stood astr..