Gambling Marketing and the Premier League: The Continued Failure of Industry Self-Regulation

Join us for this hybrid seminar. Jamie Wheaton from the University of Bristol presents the results of the second in a series of studies exploring the volume of marketing exposed to audiences during the opening weekend of the 2024/2025 Premier League.

11:30am - 12:00pm: Mince pies and coffee
12:00pm - 1:00pm: Seminar

Biography: Dr Jamie Wheaton is an incoming Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Bristol. His research explores the relationship between gambling and sport, and the marketing practices of sports clubs. His work on the prevalence of gambling adverts in sport has sparked discussions in UK Parliament, as well as widespread coverage in national and international news outlets. His recent projects have included the exploration of the levels of gambling adverts within the English Premier League across TV, radio, and social media in the UK, as well as televised and social media-based adverts within the NHL and NBA in Canada. He has also worked on the foundational research carried out within the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research, helping to set the Hub's future strategy for the coming years.

Abstract: The growing relationship between the gambling industry and professional football in England has received increasing scrutiny during recent years, with self-regulatory policies from the gambling and football industries acknowledging the harm that can emerge from exposure to gambling marketing in football coverage. However, despite the introduction of self-regulatory initiatives such as the gambling industry’s whistle-to-whistle ban, or the footballing industry’s recently implemented sponsorship code of conduct, the volume of gambling marketing continues to increase. This seminar presents the results of the second in a series of studies exploring the volume of marketing exposed to audiences during the opening weekend of the 2024/2025 Premier League. The seminar explores how gambling marketing was exposed to audiences across a wide range of media - live match broadcasts, sports news programming, sports radio broadcasts, and social media – while comparing to the volume of marketing found using the same methodology during the opening weekend last season. Importantly, the findings highlight how gambling marketing in the Premier League has significantly increased - reflecting the gambling industry’s aim of embedding gambling as a normal part of the consumption of football - and underline how self-regulation designed to reduce exposure to gambling marketing remains ineffective.