Study shows gambling ads increased threefold on Premier League opening weekend

Funded by a GambleAware grant, the research found gambling adverts almost trebled since last year. The 2024-25 Premier League season kicked off on 16 August, with games taking place until 19 August.

During the opening round of games, the university recorded 29,145 adverts, compared to 10,999 the previous year. This includes pitch-side hoardings and shirt logos featuring on live televised matches and news coverage of games.

Televised gambling messages rocket 240%

Television appeared to be the main area of concern for researchers. The report found that the number of gambling messages that appeared during the six televised games across the opening weekend totalled 23,690, up 240% from last year.

The worst-hit match, the report said, was West Ham United against Aston Villa. This game featured 6,491 gambling messages, or around 30 per minute. In previous studies, gambling messages peaked at around 3,500 per match.  

It was also noted that during match play that over 10,000 gambling messages were detected. On this, the report slammed the industry’s whistle-to-whistle ban – whereby gambling adverts cannot be shown during televised matches – as “ineffective”.

Concerns over social media and children

The report also flagged how gambling operators are using social media to connect with more consumers as gambling messages are reaching more children and young people.

Over the opening weekend, gambling adverts on social media were viewed more than 24 million times. This included what researchers singled out as posts classed as “content marketing”, which are not obviously identifiable as gambling advertising. These, the report says, can make children particularly vulnerable to gambling.

Some 74% of content marketing posts collected were not clearly identifiable as ads, which researchers say breaches advertising regulations. As a result, the university team reported more than 100 offending social media ads to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

To tackle the increase in gambling exposure during football matches, Premier League shirt sponsorships with gambling companies will be banned as of the end of the 2025-26 season. But the pending initiative has not stopped operators from signing new deals with teams that will conclude next year.

Alternatively, betting operators are signing increasingly innovative partnerships with teams and leagues to increase their exposure in new and unique ways. As part of Bet365’s global betting partner deal with Uefa its brand will be presented on media backdrops, in-game perimeter LEDs and official digital channels.

Gambling advertising “out of control”

Commenting on the findings, Dr Raffaello Rossi, co-lead author and a marketing researcher from the University of Bristol, accused the industry of being “out of control”. She said the research shows operators continue to “prioritise profit over safety”.

“This new evidence shows how much the industry is out of control, with gambling ads now flooding Premier League coverage,” Rossi said. “Just a few months ago, a new code of conduct was published by the industry to curb marketing during sporting events, but the policy has had no impact on the volume whatsoever.

“It’s clear that the industry’s attempt to self-regulate is wholly inadequate and tokenistic. Despite having had years to put in place effective measures to protect consumers, the gambling industry continues to prioritise profit over safety.”

Rossi added that she considers the findings more than a failure of policy. She described it as a failure to protect the public and the problem has been “allowed to proliferate unchecked”.

“We must stop relying on ineffective self-regulation, which is designed to fail, and use existing legislation to restrict gambling marketing like most of our European counterparts,” Rossi said. “The secretary of state has all the legal authority to act on this now.”

“Woeful inadequacies of industry self-regulation”

Lord Foster of Bath, chair of peers for gambling reform, also hit out at the findings. He said current measures are “simply not good enough”.

“These statistics reveal the woeful inadequacies of industry self-regulation,” Lord Foster said. “Despite the purported whistle-to-whistle ban, we continue to see games saturated with gambling advertising, sponsorship and marketing messages.

He called on the regulator to take immediate action to reform gambling advertising and sponsorship in the UK.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, former vice-chair of the Gambling Harms All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), to whom the university presented last year’s research, also commented on the findings.

“This appalling evidence shows us that, as I warned previously, the industry could not be trusted to regulate itself. Sadly, the regulators are toothless and as a result we are all being flooded with adverts that the vast majority of us do not want to see.

As to how the data was collected, a team of 10 researchers analysed approximately 24 hours of live match coverage, 15 hours of Sky Sports News coverage, 15 hours of TalkSport radio broadcasts and gambling advertising posted on Instagram, Facebook and X from 16-19 August.