Foul! Soccer magazines targeted at children are full of betting logos
FOOTBALL magazines aimed at children are full of gambling logos – with the BBC’s Match of the Day displaying one on ‘every other page’.
Disturbing research reveals 38 in a January edition of the Corporation’s weekly publication and 52 in one from May last year.
Each edition of Match of the Day, read by 38,000 children aged six to 14, has 68 pages.
The study revealed another magazine, Kick! Extra, had 59 logos in its January edition – equal to 1.6 on every page.
It is illegal to market gambling directly to children, but the logos in the magazines do not count because they are pictured on footballers’ shirts.
More than half of clubs in the Premier League and Championship have a gambling firm as their sponsor, generating a projected £349million income.
The research will fuel calls for a ban on betting adverts and sponsorship in sport following the launch of the biggest review of gambling laws in 15 years. Coauthor Gavin Weston, of Goldsmiths, University of London, said: ‘The BBC are aware it’s an issue, and it’s a magazine for children aged six to 14. In some of the magazines logos appear more than once every two pages. That is shocking.’
Logos for 20 brands were found across children’s football magazines from last year, with two more sponsors appearing in 2020. The researchers, from Goldsmiths and East Anglia University, said: ‘When logos on shirts are photographed then published in children’s media, gambling sponsors become highly visible to young fans.’
Four in ten children’s football cards and stickers depict gambling logos. The study found 270 of the 636 Panini Official Premier League 2020 stickers had one, as did 133 of 324 Topps Merlin Official Premiership stickers sold to collect in 2018. And 212 of 498 cards in the Panini Adrenalyn XL Premiership 2019/20 collection had a logo.
James Grimes, of campaign group the Big Step, said: ‘Gambling promotion should have no place in football, let alone in sticker books and magazines directly aimed at children.’
The review of legislation could roll back swathes of Tony Blair’s 2005 Gambling Act, blamed for sparking an epidemic of addiction. It could include maximum stakes online and checks to see if players can afford their losses.
The Mail has pushed for tougher curbs with its Stop the Gambling Predators campaign.
The BBC said: ‘Like other football magazines, MOTD features images of teams and football players as they are shown widely across all other forms of media. We do not endorse gambling or betting companies in any way.’ Kick! was contacted for comment.