Getting shirty: The EPL’s sponsorship move
Shirt sponsorships in the spotlight, Massachusetts looks at online lottery, Star Sports wins in court, Australian Betr fined +More
Good morning. On today’s agenda:
Shirt sponsorship ban proposal doesn’t get a premier reception.
Is Massachusetts thinking about online lottery?
Star Sports wins out in court.
Betr gets a rap on the knuckles in Australia.
Shirt, sharp shock
English Premier League clubs have agreed to phase out gambling sponsorships on the front of shirts from the end of the 2025/26 season, but not everyone is on board.
An offer they couldn’t refuse: The decision follows an “extensive consultation” between the league, clubs and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as part of the incoming gambling reforms. Eight clubs currently have a front-of-shirt gambling sponsor and must now end or amend their deals by the end of the 2025/26 season.
Collectively, the multi-year deals bring in £60m annually.
Sleeve sponsorships will still be allowed, which has led some industry voices to question the decision and point to the value of digitized pitch-side hoardings, which have also escaped the blackout.
Ripple effect: While only EPL clubs have agreed to the front-of-shirt ban, the ramifications will be felt much further afield, said Elizabeth Dunn, media and sports partner at Bird & Bird.
Championship clubs seeking promotion to the top tier of English football must take note of the developments and plan accordingly, she said, as it may impact their value to a potential investor.
Lower league firms may be a beneficiary, she added, if gambling operators feel there are better opportunities further down the football pyramid.
Dunn said overall “the message is clear” and must be considered in the context of similar moves elsewhere and the continued pushback against gambling advertising across Europe.
“Gambling operators must continue to engage with relevant stakeholders and voluntarily commit to socially responsible advertising to ward off future additional restrictions being imposed on the industry,” she said.
Scottish independence: The Scottish Premiership (SPFL) is not following suit, acknowledging that a ban would effectively cripple the division given sponsorship is “a significant source of income”.
“Individual sponsorships are a matter for each club and there are no plans for a league-wide prescription of such deals,” the SPFL said.
Three SPFL clubs have gambling sponsors: Celtic bears Dafabet on its shirts, while rivals Rangers have 32Red and Unibet, and Dundee United has QuinnCasino.
Former first minister Henry McLeish said he was “disappointed” at the response and said he felt the sport and industry “desperately” relying on each other was “a match made in hell”.
“I cannot believe that in Scotland and the United Kingdom there are not good sponsors willing to come into the game if the game itself could be made more attractive to those particular sponsors."
Golden duck: The EPL said it is also working “with other sports on the development of a new code for responsible gambling sponsorship”, but cricket may not have got the memo.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has rolled back restrictions on gambling sponsorships, opening the door for logos to appear on kits and equipment in bilateral Test series.
Major events such as the World Cup will still be embargoed, but otherwise from April domestic and Test cricket will be open again for operators to adorn shirts and bats with their branding.
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Mass lottery
The Massachusetts Lottery is considered the best in the nation. And now the Bay State could be the next state to legalize online lottery sales.
Follow the signposts: The House of Representatives has included online lottery in its recently proposed budget. The budget projects online lottery will generate $200m, which will go to C3 (early education) grants. The MA budget is usually hashed out in June.
The House approved online lottery sales in an economic development bill last year, but it did not survive in the final version negotiated with the Senate.
During an interview with Boston Public Radio, Gov. Maura Healey expressed support for online lottery products.
“I think it’s important for us to catch up there and meet people where they are,” she said.
Money tree: Massachusetts’ per capita spend on the lottery is $805, with New York coming in a distant second, with $455, per a 2020 LendingTree study. But that doesn’t mean the state is resting on its laurels.
Massachusetts treasurer Deborah Goldberg has pushed for online lottery sales since the middle of the last decade. The impetus for expanding into the online arena is a desire to future-proof the state’s lottery.
“An online Lottery in Massachusetts is not just a matter of convenience,” Goldberg said in 2020. “It is a necessity in order to uphold our commitment to supply reliable local aid to our cities and towns and to avoid layoffs for teachers and first responders.”
The future is now: The new push for online lottery is being framed as keeping the lottery competitive.
“… in the world now, with mobile sports betting being so popular, we feel that it’s time for our lottery system to also have a competitive advantage or an equal playing field,” Massachusetts Rep. Aaron Michlewitz said.
“Nothing against DraftKings. But the Lottery, that’s money coming back to cities and towns,” Healey told Boston Public Radio. “The money spent on DraftKings is going to DraftKings.”
Roadblocks: Online lottery has support, but it also has opposition.
The Senate is more conservative when it comes to gaming issues.
Brick & mortar lottery retailers have fought very hard against previous efforts.
Further reading: Massachusetts jumps into the online lottery conversation.
North American notebook
Massachusetts: Staying in Massachusetts, the Gaming Commission last week discussed alleged violations by MGM Resorts Springfield and Wynn’s Boston Encore. The MGC said it will work with counsel on the next steps, including seeking further information on how Encore allegedly accepted bets on Boston College women’s basketball games after initiating audits of blacklisted events following a similar prior violation.
Ontario: The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is looking to ban the use of athletes and celebrities in online gambling marketing and advertising on the basis that it had identified efforts that “strongly appeal” to those under the legal age to gamble.
The proposed ban would prohibit the use of cartoon figures, symbols, role models, social media influencers, celebrities or entertainers that may appeal to minors.
The rules will come into force within three months of the Commission publishing the new standards on its website. It is currently still taking opinions on the plan.
Texas: The state’s major league sports teams have sent an open letter to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to state they believe that, as organizations, they operate at a financial disadvantage to their opposites in legal sports-betting states.
Star turn
A wealthy gambler who sued bookmaker Star Sports for the recovery of £33,859 has lost his case in the London County Court.
A little bit woah: Scott O’Brien claimed that Star Sports knew he was a problem gambler and therefore had a duty of care towards him and should have ceased taking his bets when it became clear he was a gambling addict.
For their part, Star denied that he told one of their staff he had a gambling problem and that there was no indication from the pattern of his gambling in their Mayfair shop that he had a problem.
The case was heard over four days commencing March 27 and Judge Heather Baucher handed down her verdict on April 14.
’Er indoors: There were a number of legal issues that were debated, such as whether the Consumer Rights Act implied that Star should’ve applied the Social Responsibility Code Provision of the Act. It doesn’t, ruled Judge Baucher.
The case was ultimately decided on the testimony of a cashier in Star Sports Mayfair shop and the testimony of the claimant himself.
O’Brien claimed that he recognised Ms Gemma Mehmet from taking his daughter to school, where Ms Mehmet was also a parent.
He said he asked Ms Mehmet not to tell his ex-wife that she had seen him in the betting shop as, “I told her that I had a bit of a problem with gambling and had to keep my gambling secret from Carlie”.
Ms Mehmet denied that the conversation took place and was believed by the Judge.
Other people’s money: The hammer blow to O’Brien’s case was his admission that at one point he was betting with other people’s money (£55,000), accrued from dealing in high-end watches. As O’Brien said: “Put simply, it was not my money to lose.”
Christopher Gillespie for Star submitted that if O’Brien “was gambling with money belonging to other people without their permission then the claim must fail as the money the claimant had lost was stolen or misappropriated”.
Judge Baucher agreed with him and dismissed O’Brien’s claim.
Betr fined in Oz
Betr has copped the largest-ever fine by Liquor & Gaming NSW after a promotional blitz during its 2022 launch broke state laws.
Hear the whistle blowing: The Australian regulator said the micro-betting operator’s advertisements in newspapers, on radio stations, television and online, offering 100/1 and 20/1 odds on various sporting events “crossed the line”.
A note by the bureau said the promotions “had the potential to cause harm to the community”.
The A$210,000 ($142,000) fine covers 14 penalty infringement notices, which Betr has agreed to pay.
The firm voluntarily stopped its advertising campaign following an intervention by the regulator and has avoided court action by agreeing to the sanction.
In February, Tabcorp CEO Adam Rytenskild took a swipe at Betr for using “highly distortionary promotional offers” against established players such as itself.
Hello, world! Experts say firms should be smarter in how they make a splash in new markets, particularly given the growing international backlash over gambling advertising.
“I’ve long been a proponent of the notion that effective advertising walks on the wild side,” said marketing expert Dmitry Belianin of PMI.
“However, there’s a fine line between being captivating and landing yourself in hot water. Betr’s escapades remind us all that pushing the envelope comes with risks.”
Socials anxiety: Liquor & Gaming NSW has also fined SportChamps for posting gambling advertisements on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and its website in breach of the law.
The company has been fined A$40,000 and ordered to pay a further A$14,000 in costs.
The ads offered cash prizes for games requiring membership, special odds and bonus cash prizes, free bets and a ‘refer a friend’ promotion.
The agency said SportChamps showed a “complete disregard for the rules”.
Chinese basketball match-fixing.
The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) has ejected two teams from the ongoing playoffs following accusations of match-fixing.
The Shanghai Sharks and Jiangsu Dragons have both been fined 5m yuan ($727,000) and had their season results erased, with several club officials including their coaches banned for years.
Monday’s move by Chinese basketball came after the governing body decided the teams had played “in a negative way” last week during games two and three of their play-off series.
The Dragons were leading with less than two minutes to go in the deciding Game 3 in the opening round of the CBA play-offs in Shanghai last Friday.
But they quickly committed five consecutive turnovers and the Sharks eventually won to take the series and proceed to the quarter-finals.
Chinese basketball fans erupted on social media and following an investigation, the CBA said both sides would take no further part in the season.
The CBA did not use the phrase “match-fixing”, rather it criticized the pair for “passive playing” during their two recent games, state media reported.
The authority published a post on Weibo, saying “the league and the clubs would learn from the lessons”.
“All league participants must firmly establish correct values, the concept of honor and disgrace, and earnestly abide by national laws, regulations and various management systems of the league,” the post said.
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European notebook
Norway: Paf will lower its mandatory loss limit from €20,000 to €17,500 as of this summer, iGaming Business reported. CEO Christer Fahlstedt said the new limit is the operator’s biggest investment in responsible gaming since its formation.
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