Are bookmaker sponsorships viable in football?
In statements to the laSexta television channel, Consumer Minister Alberto Garzón described it as temerity that the teams of the professional football league continued to close sponsorship agreements with bookmakers with a view to the 2020/21 season that will begin this September. Bearing in mind the total ban on advertising raised in the Royal Decree, we wonder if sponsorships are still viable.
How long will we continue to see sponsorships in football? Minister Garzón is convinced of the total ban on bookmaker advertising from October and has praised the teams that have changed their strategy. ©WikiImages/Pixabay
With the official end of football competitions, both nationally and internationally, professional football teams have begun to prepare for the next season with speed, not in vain LaLiga Santander will start very soon , this very month, if the coronavirus does not prevent it.
As is known, the vast majority of professional teams in the first and second divisions of Spanish football maintain some kind of relationship with a bookmaker , and the publicity for these has become omnipresent in stadiums .
For the new season that is about to fall, several teams in the first division have renewed their contracts or have closed new agreements with bookmakers , cases of Betis Balompié or Celta Vigo with Betway . The measure is not without risks in view of the upcoming advertising ban .
The consumer minister has the welcome bonuses and the advertising of bookmakers between eyebrows. It is not for nothing that his government program contemplates stricter regulation in this sense than there was until now.
But New Zealand this is not an isolated case about it. In Britain a group of parliamentarians called for the total ban on advertising related to the game . Recall that, since last April, in the United Kingdom is in force the prohibition of using credit cards as a means of financing online gambling, a measure that also affects virtual wallets that have a credit card associated with them.
Controversial statements
With the approval on Oct. law that will regulate the advertising of casinos and bookmakers , Minister Garzón hopes to revolutionize the world of online and face-to-face gambling. The argument is to avoid claims that can lead to behaviors harmful to the health and economy of people exposed to such advertising.
The most important controversy has to do with the sponsorships of professional sports teams, especially football, which continues to concentrate the largest volume of bets among the Spaniards. With the new law, it is expected that the advertising of betting operators will disappear from sports kits, T-shirts and stadiums.
In declaration collected by the laSexta television channel, Garzón emphasized the ban and affirmed that those teams that have changed their sponsorships would have been demonstrating your social responsibility , while those clubs that have renewed their agreements with bookmakers “they are getting it radically wrong and they will have to correct it” .
Although many clubs were confident that, for bureaucratic reasons, the entry into force of the Royal Decree would be postponed until the 2021/22 campaign, Garzón is convinced that the law will be approved in the council of ministers this October. It is thus clear that it will not be feasible to display any advertising of bookmakers.
The clubs are calm, and the president of the Real Club Celta would have declared to the media that as long as betting is not banned in the country, the team will continue to close agreements within the available regulatory framework . It is most likely that the contracts include clauses that allow them to be revoked in the event that the Royal Decree is finally approved.
The Betway strategy seems quite clear. Regardless of what happens in October, it has already secured important sponsorships thus increasing its commercial penetration in New Zealand. In the previous season it was bet365 the bookmaker with the largest presence.
Addictive gameplay and sponsorships, an unexplored terrain
The advertising is an issue that requires attention . Minister Garzón declared that it could not be that athletes who serve as a social example are encouraging with their equipment modes of behavior that can become very harmful.
But the truth is that there are no weighty studies that prove the relationship between advertising and addictive behaviors related to gambling. The influence of advertising during broadcasts is a fact, and it seems proven that the ads of bookmakers suppose an incentive for online gambling .
This can be a cause for concern if we are dealing with gamblers or rehabilitated gamblers. But it does not necessarily follow from this that advertising in itself is the trigger for addictive behaviors . If this were the case, a corresponding regulation would be needed, and the ban planned by Garzón and his ministry would not be so misguided. But there is simply not enough data to support the ban.
