Recently, there was a public outcry against the advertisement of betting during sports matches in Australia. Laws have been passed to reduce the number of ads, but research shows that sportsbetting firms still maintain a prominent presence during football and cricket games.
Researchers at La Trobe University recently conducted research on the topic to determine just how many minutes of sportsbetting sponsorship viewers witness per game. The research team analysed 28 AFL games to gather the information. Every Test, one-day and Twenty20 cricket match of the 2012-2013 season was also analysed.
While sportsbetting advertising during commercial breaks was the main concern for parents and responsible gambling advocates, the research team discovered that on-field betting ads had a much larger presence. In fact, betting firms had some of the greatest sponsorship exposure – rivalling huge sponsors like Toyota. During the average AFL match, there is one minute worth of betting ads during commercial breaks.
However, logos on the grounds and on player uniforms received 5.6 minutes of exposure. In Twenty20 cricket, there was 0.3 minutes of commercial ads and 4.3 minutes of sponsor exposure via logos. Test cricket matches saw 1 minute of commercial ads and 13.4 minutes of sports betting logos while one-day cricket saw .6 minutes of commercials and 13.6 minutes of logos.
“The industry has been really good at connecting and embedding betting into the sport and we are really worried about it,” says Serge Sardo of the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation. These statistics indicate that it may be time to shift the focus in betting advertisement market. Responsible gambling advocates have already reduced the time of traditional ads, and now they may want to focus on jersey and venue sponsorships.
Since clubs derive a large portion of their operating costs from these deals, any opposition is unlikely to be well-received.
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