Clubs cash in on fans’ betting

ENGLISH Football League clubs have been making money from their supporters’ gambling losses, it has emerged. Under an affiliate scheme that has triggered outrage, members of the EFL pocketed a percentage of losses from supporters when they placed unsuccessful wagers with competition sponsors Sky Bet. The scheme — which British Labour MP Carolyn Harris branded as exploitation yesterday — was discontinued at the end of the 2019-20 season, having been set up in 2013. However, the EFL have admitted some sides are continuing to benefit, and will do so until the end of the 2023-24 campaign. Some of the bigger Championship clubs made around £10,000 annually from the deal which saw the clubs act as middle men, sending punters Sky Bet’s way and then picking up a percentage of the money they lost. Fans were invited to click links to Sky Bet that appeared on club websites and register accounts. It remains to be seen whether Premier League clubs who have or had sponsorship deals with bookmakers were subject to similar incentives. A draft white paper which was meant to reform UK gambling laws has been shelved a number of times and there are concerns new Prime Minister Liz Truss could drop it. The Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith, who is attempting to keep the white paper alive, told the Guardian that the deal was ‘terrible’. ‘That a football club might benefit from this runs against all that they are supposed to stand for — support for their fans, for the people who go to the ground,’ he said.