Background: The UK's Premier League and Championship are two of the most well attended soccer leagues worldwide; however, little is known regarding exposure to gambling marketing through the matchday experience. The current study sought to quantify exposure to gambling and alcohol marketing, and responsible gambling messages within matchday programmes.Methods: Programmes for each team in the English Premier League and Championship were analysed across consecutive matchday weekends, made available to 1,269,404 match-going fans. Direct adverts for, and incidental exposure to, gambling, alcohol, and responsible gambling marketing or messages were coded. Direct adverts were counted, as were absolute counts and percentage of pages with incidental exposure.Results: Programmes averaged 2.3 direct gambling adverts and 37.8 instances of incidental gambling marketing exposure. Incidental gambling marketing was found on 22.2% of pages. There was more gambling marketing than either alcohol marketing or responsible gambling messages. This was observed across: number of direct adverts (p <.001), incidents of exposure (p <.001) and the percentage of pages with exposure (p <.001). Teams with gambling shirt sponsors had more incidental marketing exposure, in both absolute count (p <.001) and percentage of pages (p <.001) but did not have more direct gambling adverts (p = .63). Incidental exposure to gambling marketing was present in 59.0% of children's specific sections of programmes.Conclusions. There was greater exposure to gambling marketing in soccer matchday programmes. Gambling marketing was frequently evident in child specific sections of matchday programmes. Attending soccer matches and reading the matchday programme increases exposure to gambling.
Gambling marketing is frequently visible in the United Kingdom, especially around the national sport, soccer. Previous research has documented the frequency with which gambling marketing logos can be seen in domestic club soccer, and also the frequency of television advertising around international tournaments. The present research investigates the frequency and content of television advertising during the men’s 2020 Euro soccer tournament, a high-profile tournament shown since the industry’s voluntary “whistle-to-whistle ban” on gambling advertising came into effect. Overall, 113 gambling adverts were recorded (4.5 adverts per relevant match). Financial inducements were the most frequently shown category (56.6%), followed by adverts raising awareness of a given operator’s brand (19.5%), adverts featuring the odds on specific complex bets (18.6%), and adverts promoting safer gambling (5.3%). Adverts featured a range of safer gambling messages, with the “when the fun stops, stop” message featuring in 56.6% of adverts. This research indicates that gambling advertising remains a frequent part of the experience of watching live televised soccer in the UK, and shows how the content of this advertising was comparable to what has been seen in the previous literature.
Background: The UK’s Premier League and Championship are two of the most well attended soccer leagues worldwide; however, little is known regarding exposure to gambling marketing through the matchday experience. The current study sought to quantify exposure to gambling and alcohol marketing, and responsible gambling messages within matchday programmes. Methods: Programmes for each team in the English Premier League and Championship were analysed across consecutive matchday weekends, made available to 1,269,404 match-going fans. Direct adverts for, and incidental exposure to, gambling, alcohol, and responsible gambling marketing or messages were coded. Direct adverts were counted, as were absolute counts and percentage of pages with incidental exposure. Results: Programmes averaged 2.3 direct gambling adverts and 37.8 instances of incidental gambling marketing exposure. Incidental gambling marketing was found on 22.2% of pages. There was more gambling marketing than either alcohol marketing or responsible gambling messages. This was observed across: number of direct adverts (p <.001), incidents of exposure (p <.001) and the percentage of pages with exposure (p <.001). Teams with gambling shirt sponsors had more incidental marketing exposure, in both absolute count (p <.001) and percentage of pages (p <.001) but did not have more direct gambling adverts (p = .63). Incidental exposure to gambling marketing was present in 59.0% of children’s specific sections of programmes. Conclusions. There was greater exposure to gambling marketing in soccer matchday programmes. Gambling marketing was frequently evident in child specific sections of matchday programmes. Attending soccer matches and reading the matchday programme increases exposure to gambling.
Gambling is marketed in English soccer across various formats such as TV advertising, social media, pitch side hoardings, and shirt sponsorship. There have been recent reductions in TV advertising brought about by self-regulation, but gambling shirt sponsorship remains frequent, and can lead to a high frequency of incidental marketing exposure on TV. Knowledge is lacking on how gambling advertising frequency and marketing exposure have changed over time in other media, such as in matchday programmes. This study addressed this gap via a content analysis of programmes for 44 teams across 3 periods spanning 18 months (N=132). The number of gambling adverts decreased from 2.3 to 1.3 per-programme, while incidental exposure prevalence stayed constant, at a higher rate of 42.7 incidences per-programme. Teams sponsored by gambling companies had more adverts per-programme than those sponsored by other industries (2.3 versus 1.2), and also had more incidental exposure (58.8 versus 20.2). Incidental exposure to gambling marketing was consistently more prevalent (42.7) per-programme than alcohol (3.2) or safer gambling messages (3.1). Furthermore, across all timepoints, 56.8% of dedicated children’s sections contained incidences of gambling marketing. Researchers and policymakers should consider that sports fans can get exposed to gambling marketing through a number of channels outside of TV advertising. Indirect and incidental exposure to gambling marketing remains high, which can be particularly challenging for those experiencing gambling related harm. All forms of gambling marketing must be considered when making legislative changes.
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