The frequency and content of televised UK gambling advertising during the men’s 2020 Euro soccer tournament

Abstract

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.

A frequency and content analysis of gambling advertising shown during the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023

“…Of gambling advertising shown on TV, a significant focus has been international and club men's football (Newall et al, 2022;Sharman et al, 2023;Torrance, Heath, Andrade, et al, 2023). Although this high frequency of advertising in men's football has led to some industry self-regulation, one recent analysis suggested that this "whistle-to-whistle ban" only reduced the incidence of TV adverts by 43% (McGrane et al, 2024).…”

Gambling, cryptocurrency, and financial trading app marketing in English Premier League football: a frequency analysis of in-game logos

“…Therefore, considerable attention has been paid to the role of marketing in the 'gamblification' of football and its potential negative impacts upon public health (Lopez-Gonzalez & Griffiths, 2018;McGee, 2020;van Schalkwyk et al, 2021). Gambling marketing is often shown during commercial breaks in televised football games (Newall, Ferreira, Sharman, & Payne, 2022;Newall, Thobhani, Walasek, & Meyer, 2019) and via social media (Houghton, McNeil, Hogg, & Moss, 2019;Houghton & Moss, 2022). However, the top two men's professional leagues, the English Premier League (EPL) and Championship, also have gambling marketing embedded within the game via shirt sponsorship and pitch-side hoardings (Bunn et al, 2019;Cassidy & Ovenden, 2017;Djohari, Weston, Cassidy, & Kulas-Reid, 2021;Purves, Critchlow, Morgan, Stead, & Dobbie, 2020;Sharman, Ferreira, & Newall, 2023).…”

Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling adverts on gambling urges

“…Second, a selfregulatory "whistle-to-whistle ban" has removed any TV advertising during live sport since 2018, but only covering the interval from 5-minutes before to 5-minutes after the relevant game. This means that between 4.5 (Newall, Ferreira, et al, 2022) and 5.2 adverts (Sharman et al, 2023) were shown across the entire broadcasts of televised men's international soccer tournaments on average. Third, in 2023 the top flight of men's professional soccer, the English Premier League, agreed to prevent gambling companies from being front-of-shirt sponsors from August 2026 onwards.…”

“…International research has found that gambling advertising tends to include certain specific themes, such as the promotion of "free bets" and other financial inducements (Di Censo et al, 2023;Hing et al, 2018;Killick & Griffiths, 2022;Lopez-Gonzalez et al, 2018). Gambling advertising has become so embedded in the UK that some adverts (commercials) are shown just to inform viewers about the potential harms of gambling, and these "safer gambling" adverts have been shown by both gambling operators and by independent charities (Newall, Ferreira, et al, 2022;Sharman et al, 2023). While widespread gambling advertising is relatively recent in the US and Canada (Grubbs & Kraus, 2023;Wheaton et al, 2024), it has been established for longer in Australia and various European jurisdictions (Hing et al, 2023), which has led to some countries such as Spain and Belgium now imposing restrictions (De Jans et al, 2024;Ministerio de la Presidencia, 2020).…”

“…Participants in an online experiment viewed either a control TV advert which was not about gambling, viewed a traditional gambling video advert with a financial inducement (which have been shown to affect other aspects of gambling behavior; Balem et al, 2021;Browne et al, 2019), or viewed a safer gambling adverts shown by either an operator or a charity. Financial inducement adverts are the most common type of conventional gambling advert (Newall, Ferreira, et al, 2022;Sharman et al, 2023), and may well induce gambling urges given the "free bets" that they can offer. In total there were five between-participants conditions, to evaluate both the bet regret and stigma reduction GambleAware campaigns.…”