Seems the Government are apparently ‘increasingly likely’ to ban sponsorship of clubs by betting firms later this year (autumn). Would certainly affect us as we get £20m a year from it. https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/19045495.watford-affected-likely-betting-sponsor-ban/ (Apologies if this is being discussed elsewhere)
It’s absolutely moronic to introduce this right now with clubs in their knees from the losses in revenue from covid.
Just stupid. The government shouldn’t be allowed to do blanket bans like this. If legal contracts have been signed, then they should be honored. At least give the clubs who have sponsors from betting firms to see out the current contract. Every club that has a betting sponsor has planned for x amount of income, to then just flippantly cut that in a financial crisis as is, is preposterous.
Really don't love betting sponsorships and the companies' stranglehold on football, but this is entirely true - they'd have to be insane.
Or perhaps it is even more important to do it now, at a time when the nation's mental health is under unprecedented strain and household incomes are getting tighter by the day... Football (society?) needs to stop and take a few steps back to reappraise it's priorities. Can we sacrifice Gray's wage to save a few families from the ravages of gambling addiction...
I don't think shirt sponsorship, etc is that big a deal but the recent craze of football club Twitter accounts posting links to 'featured bets' and promoting it directly to fans is too much for me.
Considering it's being conjectured for implementation later in the year, now isn't even the time they're doing it, and again, in a realpolitik sense clubs who are already under varying levels of extreme financial hardship, having spent the past year giving money back to broadcasters and playing behind closed doors, will not be in any shape to suddenly lose millions from their operating budget. We certainly couldn't. People have been warning of the potential for clubs to go under for some time now, and it seems fairly miraculous that none have, although we'll have to keep one eye on Derby, for a start. Now is decidedly not the time to change something that, whilst ethically dubious and hopefully on the way out, is nonetheless the status quo and a key financial bastion of the football league pyramid as it stands today.
Like many things that affect my industry, the recent fixed odds betting terminals being one thing, there is a populist opinion from someone who doesn't actually know the deeper issues. The industry creates a lot of jobs and pays a lot into the treasury, yet the real issue is un(der)regulated firms in the far east muscling in. Gordon Brown had the foresight to see that betting was in danger of not providing enough towards the public purse and changed a number of things in 2001. This was all very well because online betting was still very small, telephone betting was the thing. Companies were operating out of Gibraltar, the Channel Islands, etc. so Brown banned advertising of companies based outside the UK and removed betting duty in return for firms returning to mainland UK, it was generally welcomed by all. (Apart from my jollies to Malta, Cyprus and Gibraltar were a thing of the past) In the last 10 years we are now seeing the proliferation of non-UK firms advertising on shirts, where any UK revenue does not pay any tax here, other than the tax paid by football clubs' sponsorship income HMRC get nothing. Also I think the government are overlooking the fact that while betting companies are being castigated they still effectively peddle the National Lottery. As with the FOBTs the issue is not the UK industry, it is the industry outside of the UK that needs to be restricted. Therefore if Coral sponsor someone it should be allowed whereas 138.com and other unknowns should not be, and also the government can easily block betting with such companies unless they have a UK presence.
That’s conflating issues. And you can’t just pick on betting companies who don’t pay tax here. Particularly when the largest culprits in not contributing taxes are US tech giants.
Just read in another thread that Gray has cost us £33 mill (inc wages). Thirty three million pounds (this shouldn't become a Gray bashing discussion - there's nothing to discuss, he's ***** and a complete waste of money, end of.) There is something wrong with our game. A game that has whored itself to money for far too long. Only major shocks to the status quo can change this. If a few clubs go to under then so be it, football will survive. Personally i'd prefer to watch us in Division 4 and not have to explain to my kids that our club has sold its soul for a few shillings.
Surprised by the uproar on here. I think it's a great move and certainly welcome. I don't want to cause any disrespect to Otter or anyone else who works in the industry, but it's gotten completely out of hand. The proposal (as I understand) would allow contracts to be honoured but banned in future. I read the book about the Irish postman who lost millions gambling, and the actions of the bookies are disgusting in a lot of cases. I also had a friend who dropped out of my uni course, at the time I didn't know why, but I recently found out it's because he was in £200k debt due to a gambling addiction and being threatened by loan sharks who he'd borrowed money from at the height of his addiction. I spoke to him about it recently and he said he can't watch football anymore because it's impossible to watch without being bombarded with betting ads. There is also loads of data to suggest that younger people who grow up watching football are becoming co-dependant on it.
I suspect more damage is done from kids learning violence is okay through telly, film, game, music and gang culture than ever through seeing gambling adds.
I'm in two minds about this as part of me is against the nanny state, but we probably do need to do smething. We could tax it out of the system. Slap a 50% tax on advertising revenue obtained form the following industries. Gambling Tobacco Booze Petrol & Oil Junk food And anything else that is deemed to be socially discouraged. Lets take the money and pop it into the coffers to help deal with the consequences.
I have no issue with the ban, but current deals have to be allowed to run through to completion. The government should not place a blanket ban across the board for next season, when they know full well the current financial plight all clubs are facing.
Don't know tbh, but from what i've heard from other friends they we using him to do illegal stuff for them because he couldn't repay. It wasn't a wonga type loanshark, it was a gang type illegal loanshark...
