(Jim Armitage, Evening Standard – Source: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/article.html?in_article
_id=415448&in_page_id=3)
Online gambling companies were delivered another hammer blow today as it emerged they could be stopped from advertising on football shirts.
The Gambling Commission is concerned such ads might encourage children to bet, especially when they appear on youngsters’ replica kits. Big club shirt sponsorships by gaming companies currently include Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers and Middlesbrough.
Internet betting businesses are already reeling from the ban on their activities in the US, which has forced a number to sell the bulk of their operations and has crippled their business models.
Fears are now rising that they could become a pariah of sports advertising like the tobacco companiesfacing bans across the world. That would make it increasingly difficult for them to market themselves in Europe and Asia, where they have now been forced to focus their activities.
Negative publicity about the impact on children of online gaming adverts could also have a knock-on effect on replica shirt sales this Christmas – traditionally a major time of year for sales at Tesco, JJB Sports and others.
Some clubs appear to have seen the row coming. Manchester United pulled out of shirt sponsorship talks with Gibraltar-based betting group Mansion after becoming unhappy with the association with gambling. In May, Mansion signed up Spurs instead, in a £34m deal. The club insisted the company could only use the word ‘Mansion’ and the logo, rather than the website addresses of its gambling sites.
It is not clear whether such agreements would be enough to satisfy a critical Gambling Commission investigation, however, as simply typing ‘Mansion’ and ‘gaming’ into Google takes viewers directly to the casino.
888.com sponsors Middlesbrough’s shirts but is in the final year of that deal, 32Red backs Aston Villa, and Bet24 is emblazoned on the chests of Blackburn Rovers and Leeds United.
Marketing analysts said that, while the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea could afford to be choosy, the loss of a major category of sponsorship to the game would hit hard on smaller clubs.
The sudden arrival on the scene of online gaming companies with huge advertising budgets has helped fuel a 25% increase in spending on shirt sponsorship deals in Premiership football in the last season alone, with the amount now totalling £70m.
In a speech to the House of Commons last night, Sports Minister Richard Caborne said: ‘This issue needs to be looked at and I’m pleased that the Gambling Commission will be consulting on this in the New Year.
The new legislation on gambling does not come into effect until next September and the Gambling Commission is drawing up regulations on a host of issues.