Proactive Investors – Gambling adverts almost tripled over the opening weekend of this season’s Premier League, research showed on Friday.
Nearly 30,000 gambling adverts were recorded across the likes of social media, television and radio channels over the first weekend of England’s top football league in August, University of Bristol researchers found.
This was up from 10,999 over the same weekend a year earlier, leaving researchers warning over a heightened risk to fans as well as children watching fixtures.
“This new evidence shows how much the industry is out of control,” co-lead author Raffaello Rossi commented.
“It’s clear that the industry’s attempt to self-regulate is wholly inadequate and tokenistic.”
Some 23,690 such adverts were counted across live broadcasts of six opening-weekend Premier League fixtures alone, against 6,966 a year earlier.
Industry body the Betting and Gaming Council said a ban on gambling ads during games before the country’s 9pm watershed had seen a 97% reduction in the number of such commercials seen by children.
However, co-lead author Jamie Wheaton added the research showed “the need for the government to intervene and move beyond the industry’s voluntary measures” in order to fully project children and young people.
