No bans for betting firms

  • by Staff Writer
  • Wednesday, 29th June 2022

Plans to ban betting companies from sponsoring Premier League clubs have been shelved, it has been confirmed.

The government had been under pressure to ban gambling firms, such as West Ham United's principal partner Betway from acting as sponsors of top flight clubs following an explosion of online betting and a surge in addiction rates.

However it was confirmed today that while some steps have been taken to reduce the impact online gambling in having on many lives, including the introduction of an industry ombudsman, they stopped short of preventing companies from working with Premier League teams.


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Meanwhile betting companies will still be permitted to advertise on TV and in the media, even though campaigners have expressed graves concerns about the practise.

Nearly one in every two to flight clubs featured gambling companies on their shirts last season. West Ham have been sponsored by Betway since 2015, after they replaced Alpari as the club's main sponsor. The sponsorship deal, which was extended in 2019 to run until 2025 is worth in the region of £10million per year to the club.

Moves to throttle the impact of betting companies were launched after it was revealed more than 400 suicides per year were linked to gambling, while it has been claimed around five per cent of addicts attempted to commit suicide in the last calendar year alone.

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