If you have taken the time recently to sit down and watch a football match from start to finish, there’s one constant which you will have been, consciously or subconsciously made aware of.

Whether it is through electronic advertisement boards around the pitch, front or sleeve shirt sponsors or even the stadium’s name, it is hard to come through 90 minutes of football without witnessing some sort of gambling advertisement.

It has stealthily rose to prominence but is now front and centre of a topical debate which is only set to garner more media attention as more reports and stories are published about it. The oversaturation of gambling advertisements which are present in every facet of the sport are a problem at the highest level which desperately need addressing.

Take the English Football League, the structural body responsible for the four levels of the football pyramid below the Premier League. It is currently sponsored by Sky Bet and will continue to be until the end of the 2023/24 season. Further up the food chain, and nine out of the 20 Premier League clubs have gambling firms as shirt sponsors, with 19 having gambling companies as club partners.

Children as young as 14 have been exposed to betting sites who have close links to Premier League clubs.

This undoubtedly has a detrimental impact on players and fans alike. The main concern is that the prevalence of such high volumes of promotional material from gambling firms within the sport leads to a parasitic relationship, whereby supporters are being exposed and enticed to partake in a culture of problem gambling and addiction, which can have dire consequences, all so their clubs can line their pockets.

The massive and continuingly expanding appeal of the Premier League and football as a whole means that this issue is not solely kept to our shores. A disturbing 2019 investigation by The Times in Nairobi, Kenya, witnessed children as young as 14 gambling on African sites such as SportPesa, sponsors of Everton FC.

Meanwhile, away from the pitch, it was recently discovered that seven clubs from the Premier League and Championship had direct links on the children’s area of their websites to gambling sites, breaking gambling commission rules.

To add insult to injury, very little has been done, and very little will be done to tackle such issues without direct government intervention.

In the last few years, a whistle-to-whistle ban has been introduced to prevent gambling advertising from being shown during live broadcasts before 9pm. Analysis shows that it has reduced the number of gambling adverts seen by four to 17-year-olds during TV commercial breaks by 97%.

However, it almost seems redundant when digital advertising boards surrounding the pitch are plastered with these adverts during the 90 minutes of action. The aforementioned initiative is an example of a voluntary measure taken on behalf of gambling firms to try and reduce the exposure of this type of advertising on young people.

Yet at this stage, it is simply not enough and many people now believe the onus is now on the government to step forward and take action to try and tackle the epidemic issue of problem gambling which has been and still is a problem facing society as a whole, but one which has been exacerbated by football’s tight knit links with the industry.

A governmental review of the 2005 Gambling Act by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has been ongoing since December 2020, looking into whether the government should make amendments to an outdated bill. Many people believe that the outcome of this investigation will bring wholesale changes as to how the betting industry can operate within the footballing world.

There have been calls for an outright ban on gambling sponsors within football; but there are fears that the effect of such a ban could bring the ruination of already struggling clubs, given they would be losing a key revenue stream.

The oversaturation of gambling advertisements at football games are inviting fans to develop unhealthy gambling addictions.

Chairman of the English Football League Rick Parry has estimated that such a flat ban on gambling sponsors would cost the EFL £40 million a year in lost revenue. This, combined with the estimated “£250 million hole” left by lost gate receipts due to the pandemic, could bring further stress to many clubs who already find themselves in a situation of financial peril.

While we await the outcome of the review and how it will affect the sport we all feel such passion for, what happens in the next few years could potentially shape football world irreversibly.

It is estimated that 70% of all legal and illegal gambling worldwide is placed on football, meaning that any changes to this industry are sure to have colossal ramifications one way or another.

There is no doubt that the issues of problem gambling and addiction are still plaguing our society and are very unlikely to disappear of their own accord, but they would certainly be aided by governing bodies preventing such tight links between football and gambling companies.

If you have found yourself affected by gambling addiction in any shape or form, there is information and support available at: begambleaware.org and gamcare.org.uk

Ciaran Currie is a sports reporter for The Scoop and an International Business and Spanish student at Queen’s University Belfast.

A scourge on the beautiful game – football’s unhealthy relationship with the gambling industry