The Betting and Gaming Council has welcomed new Codes of Conduct for Gambling Related Agreements across a few major sporting bodies, significantly raising standards for sports sponsorship deals.
Working alongside globally recognised national sports bodies including the Premier League, English Football League, The FA, Women’s Super League, Rugby Football League, British Horseracing Authority plus official bodies representing darts, snooker and boxing, the BGC has developed a cross industry voluntary code of conduct for betting sponsorship deals, with each body producing a specific code for their own sport.
This new framework, created by the BGC to drive up standards, sets new standards on safer gambling sponsorship across four key principles of protection, social responsibility, reinvestment and integrity:
Protectionâ¯of children and young people – gambling sponsorship must be specifically designed to limit its reach and promotion to those under the age of 18 and those at risk of gambling related harm.
Social responsibility⯖ gambling sponsorship must be promoted and delivered in a socially responsible way. This includes ensuring that education and awareness messages are provided as part of all marketing activities.
Reinvestmentâ¯into sport – the commercial income raised from gambling sponsorship must be reinvested back into infrastructure and programmes that serve fans and communities. This includes investment in improving infrastructure and providing community and grassroots participation opportunities for local communities.
Maintaining sporting integrity⯖ gambling sponsorship must not compromise the integrity of sporting competitions nor harm the welfare of those participants who take part in them.
The EFL, Premier League, The FA and Women’s Super League have already announced that that they have formally agreed to adopt the new Code of Conduct for Gambling Related Agreements in football ahead of the new season, as has the British Horseracing Authority. We expect further sporting bodies to publish shortly.
This code has huge practical implications for sports sponsorship. For football, that includes ensuring the design of betting sponsorship limits reach to children and those at risk of harm, ensuring professional footballers are aware of available support services and making sure club social media accounts do not include links to betting operator websites.
