COMMENT: Betting & Formula One

Before you start reading this, its hands up by the Editor-in-Chief.  MG doesn’t smoke or gamble.

I am against betting on football as it is addictive and open to corruption.  I am also a Luton Town season-ticket holder and like all involved with the club aspire to the Premier League next season.  It’s been a long grind since The Conference years.

Major product promotions using sport is nothing new. (Fred Perry the last British Wimbledon winner before Andy Murray is an example).

Sports sponsorship has been a longstanding and effective form of indirect advertising for the tobacco industry, particularly in terms of increasing the uptake of smoking among young people. Motorsports are particularly appealing because of their association with adventure, excitement, glamour and risk.

Many years ago, I was Press Officer for Lotus when we were sponsored by Imperial Tobacco (Gold Leaf Team Lotus etc) as were other Formula One teams. John Player girls and lots of fun.  Lotus Elans in red and white with the Team Lotus stripe still abound.

This form of marketing was blocked by government legislation and I cannot recall what sort of fuss was made. In fact, Colin Chapman did not smoke nor many team members, including myself, but that did not stop Players inviting me to Nottingham to discuss becoming their PR man. I turned the job down.

In the 1970s and 1980s tobacco advertising in motorsports involved widespread direct branding, with cigarette logos on cars, motorbikes, team uniforms and trackside advertising, largely to gain brand exposure via TV coverage.

After the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control banned “all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship” in 2005, tobacco companies began to use more creative methods to get around the rules, which continue to this day. Ferrari and McClaren are quietly notable with backing from the tobacco industry.

This ‘soft’ support is the same tactic that the betting industry is now pursuing.  Give away a little but put back a lot and work away in the dark world of the so-called influencers and personalities.  

Intense lobbying it would seem has persuaded Premier League clubs to collectively agree for the withdrawal of gambling sponsorship from the front of their matchday shirts by the end of the 2025-26 season.  This ‘voluntary’ decision has for the most part been treated with derision by both supporters and those opposed.  After the deadline, clubs will still be able to continue featuring gambling brands in areas such as shirt sleeves and LED advertising. Any spare space!

It is but a token decision to try and forestall the government's ongoing review of current gambling legislation. And clubs will be allowed to secure new shirt-front deals before the deadline.

The White Paper has already been pushed back at least four times, with delays caused by changes in prime ministers and the revolving door of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (there have been eight in five years).

Eight top-flight clubs have gambling companies on the front of their shirts, worth an estimated £60m per year.  

The danger of gambling was brought home with a BBC interview of “David”, not his real name, a transport worker from the north of England.  “You get very good at lying," David said.

"Getting loans for home improvements that weren't for home improvements. Credit cards. Any way I could get money to gamble."

His gambling addiction has cost him his marriage, and many thousands of pounds. "It's just a double life," he says, "I've lost enough for a house.  I was using online casinos, roulette machines, slot machines online. It was always on my phone. I was betting on football live, on horseracing, anything. It could be any time of day."

Now in his 30s, David is getting help and said he had managed to make it past 100 days without a bet.  There are many, many other examples.

Russell Martin, Head Coach at Swansea City, says that he welcomes Premier League clubs withdrawing gambling sponsorship from the front of their matchday shirts which some say is a token gesture.

The Swans boss notes his father lost the family home over a gambling addiction when Martin was eight years old.

Ex-Scotland defender Martin believes the impact of gambling is "horrific," and says he has also seen it negatively impact some of his former team-mates.

"I hate it [gambling]. I really don't like it," Martin explained.

At Luton Town, Chief Executive Garry Sweet has been very anti-betting.  Sadly, Kenilworth Road is adorned with gambling logos.  He can’t withdraw from a League that buys into it.

The argument is that some people enjoy betting as some enjoy smoking. In both cases it is up to them.

Formula One survives without blatant cigarette advertising and so will the Premier League. Greed has overtaken the Beautiful Game.

Index/Home page
 

READERS' COMMENT

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 200 words maximum

No one has commented yet, why don't you start the ball rolling?