Nicholas Burton, Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Brock University; Simon Chadwick, Global Director of Eurasian Sport and Professor of the Eurasian Sport Industry at Emlyon Business School; Alexander Bond, Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University; and Paul Widdop, Research Fellow in Consumption at Leeds Beckett University, had a French-language piece recently published in The Conversation about the rise in sponsorship of major European sports clubs by gambling companies.

They write:

“In Europe, the sponsorship sector represents around 25.70 billion euros, of which 80 to 90 per cent is generally devoted to expenditure in sport. In addition, some estimates suggest that around 50 per cent of this spending is spent on football.

In recent years, we have witnessed a rise in the sponsorship of major European clubs by gambling companies, many of which are associated with online platforms, which has generated considerable controversy. Some observers believe that there are links between sponsorship, gambling, addictive behaviour, debt and public health problems.

As a result, in some countries authorities are taking steps to regulate or ban this form of sponsorship. For clubs, this could be problematic, creating a shortfall while the health crisis is already strongly affecting their resources (loss of ticketing, renegotiations of TV rights in France , etc.)”

Continue reading the original version of the article in French here.

Continue reading the translated version of the article here.