When gambling meets sport, is socially responsible sponsorship possible?

The number of UK sports bodies that have worked with the BGC to voluntarily issue socially responsible codes of conduct for gambling sponsorships throughout 2024 has been a welcome development, echoing a message that we first shared in public last year and have been practising for much of the past decade.

Public discourse on the subject of gambling sponsorship in sport tends to focus on matters such as the omission of the gambling brands from junior replica shirts or the regularity in which advertising for betting opportunities appears via pitchside LED screens. However, our approach has consistently focused on a broader objective: Ensuring that sports organisations not only balance their financial reliance on commercial income, but place safer gambling at the very heart of these partnerships. By embedding robust education and harm prevention initiatives, we aim to make safer gambling an integral and non-negotiable cornerstone of every sponsorship agreement.

Our view – formed with the crucial support of subject matter experts from elite sport, the gambling industry and compliance specialists – is a matter of public record in the white paper we released in February 2023; ‘Gambling Harm Prevention in Sport Review’, and was further validated two months later when the government’s own White Paper on gambling aligned with the majority of our proposals to limit gambling-related harm in sport.

The aforementioned experts, members of the Pro Sport Advisory Board that we first brought together a year earlier, re-affirmed our existing view that if such arrangements between the sports and gambling sector exist out of commercial necessity, they should proactively make allowances for safer gambling needs to be incorporated into the agreement.

Three of the ten conclusions drawn from that review cover the cultural and impactful considerations that both the sponsor and beneficiary should bring to the negotiating table before the partnership deal is struck, and relaying them in full here gives a clear indication of our stance.

Safer gambling needs to be part of the embedded culture of every sports club, not just a box-ticking annual exercise, meaning that senior leaders of sports organisations – including the sports executives and owners – should be involved in the education, in order to imbue that commitment to developing a safer gambling culture. There is a need for constant interaction from the youngest groups upwards, and with all playing and staff members. It is crucial to provide education extending wider than just the athletes, coaches and support staff, with parents highlighted as the most influential group on a player and match officials to wider safeguard the integrity of the sports industry.

Organisations should proactively enter into discussions with any gambling partners to devise an organisation-wide strategy that ensures that a clear safer gambling message is delivered and understood across all departments and key stakeholders (including the fanbase/membership). We advise communicating safer gambling messages through a collaborative approach, a joined-up strategy, and it should be a part of an inclusive marketing and communications strategy, embedded in a club’s culture; concise and consistent messaging tailored to fit the audience – both internally and externally.

Organisations concerned about the wider perception of engaging into commercial partnerships with gambling-related organisations must agree upon a collaborative approach with such commercial partners to ensure that safer gambling focus is at the heart of the relationship. It is recommended that any sporting organisation that enters into a new commercial partnership with a gambling operator should embed mandatory gambling harm education programmes into their contract to help inform and safeguard the individuals within their organisation(s).

All of this aligns with the model we have successfully implemented through numerous tripartite agreements involving EPIC Global Solutions, gambling operators, and sports competitions.

Among those who have issued socially responsible codes of conduct this year are the likes of the Premier League, EFL, British Horseracing Authority and Rugby Football League. Throughout our existence, we have enjoyed a positive working relationship with most of the governing bodies that have signed up to the codes or their members, delivering tailored lived experienced-based education sessions to players, coaches, staff and supporters across many of the UK’s best-loved sports.

Though the sessions are typically intimate in terms of scale for maximum impact, the positive PR value generated by the concept is considerable, as the power of seeing the message come from either a former favourite in that sport, or being delivered to a supporter’s favourite team, makes people sit up and take notice.

It’s worth pointing out – and timely to reference it too, in the current political climate – that a number of these arrangements have been RET-funded, with the gambling operator taking no PR credit for the work that they are funding, but the ecosystem of the sport receives the benefits of its occurrence. We have only ever agreed to work with operators who share our passion to reduce gambling-related harm and dedicate resource to the process, rather than seeing it as a tick-box exercise, this ensures a clear signal of intent from the operator to prioritise meaningful harm reduction over self-promotion.

A better-educated sports ecosystem has benefits for all. Among the playing squads and coaching staff, this includes reducing the risk of sporting integrity breaches and increasing awareness of why compliance exists and is to be adhered to. Among the followers of sports, it helps to provide reassurance that the whole industry is committed to protecting children and young people from partaking in gambling, and for other corporate partners, they have added reassurance that they’re investing in a competition with integrity and positive values, for their own peace of mind.

For these reasons, we are pleased to see that the expert message — underpinned by the recommendations of the government’s White Paper over 18 months ago — is being heeded across the gambling and sports landscape. The continued application of proactive, sensible, pragmatic measures ensures that the commercial benefits for both sectors can coexist with the vital goal of educating the public on maintaining gambling as entertainment without harm.

Mike Holinski is EPIC Global Solutions’ VP of Partnerships, managing the company’s relationships with key partners across the pro sport and gambling sectors. Holinski has previously worked across both sectors for organisations such as Sky Betting & Gaming, Stats Perform and Bradford Bulls RLFC