Ex-Paddy Power chair calls for ban on betting ads in sport

Fintan Drury, former chair of Paddy Power, has said betting companies “should be taken out of sport sponsorship” to help tackle problems related to gambling addiction.

Speaking last week at a conference in Dublin, Ireland, Drury said it is a “scandal” that broadcasters allow gambling firms, as well as alcohol companies, to promote their products and services on television before the watershed.

Drury also said that there is a “massive job of work to be done in terms of taking booze companies and betting companies out of sport”.

According to the Irish Times newspaper, Drury added: “It won’t come from the politicians because there’s too much tax revenues at stake and it actually has to come from grassroots.

“It’s not going to be easy; they’ve already failed to do it with regard to booze.

“So if we could get them mobilised from the grassroots, I believe that’s the only way we can get things to change

“It is a scandal that we have a situation where broadcasters are allowed to promote gambling companies during the afternoons before the watershed that applies to booze.”

Drury’s comments come after the UK government last week announced that it is to undertake a 12-week consultation into the UK gambling market in the wake of a review into current rules and regulations.

Although much of the reporting of the review has been centred around cutting the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals, the government is also keen to introduce new regulations to help protect young and vulnerable people from gambling-related harm.

Advertising and the relationship between gambling and the professional sports sector is believed to be one of the areas up for discussion in the consultation.

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