DCMS urged to ban regulated gambling operators from sports sponsorships

The Local Health and Global Profits (LHGP) research consortium has stated that it believes the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) consultation on the banning of unlicensed gambling sponsorship in sport should extend to the licensed sector. While welcoming the black market-focused potential ban as a “necessary step”, the LHGP has urged DCMS “to go further to meaningfully reduce gambling-related harm”. This development comes just over two years on from the creation of the LHGP, a £9m, five-year research consortium funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) with partners including the Universities of Bath, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Sheffield. It also follows continued discourse on the coverage of gambling advertising/sponsorships and the protection of audiences in the UK. Last Wednesday (9 September), the DCMS’ consultation closed but an announcement of a decision is yet to be made. The licensed industry has been urging for the removal of unlicensed sponsorships in sport for some time, with both the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) and Entain welcoming the opening of the consultation but urging DCMS to act quickly. Entain’s lobbying has extended to various other organisations, and it recently wrote to 10 of the 2026/27 Premier League’s clubs who have ties with unlicensed bookmakers. This was widely publicised but clearly didn’t change the marketing strategy at Sunderland AFC, which signed a deal with Shuffle, a crypto-centric casino without a UK licence, just days later. It is evident that the LHGP does not agree with the sentiments of Entain, as it claimed that constant exposure to advertising directly correlates with increased gambling behaviour and even suicide rates, particularly among vulnerable groups and young people. DCMS told to extend ban to social media The group highlighted the “balloon effect” – companies redirecting marketing spend into less regulated channels when one route is restricted – and has therefore recommended that DCMS also look to ban gambling advertising on online and digital platforms. “Digitalisation has transformed gambling marketing, allowing companies to use data-driven targeting, algorithms and “nudge” tactics that are barely touched by current policy and that give operators disproportionate power to drive habitual gambling,” the consortium stated. Questions around how viable this is will obviously be raised. Many regulators around the world have continually pressed for this kind of ban on unlicensed operators, but it becomes tough to onboard Big Tech firms like Meta and TikTok owner ByteDance to aid the policing of this. The UK Gambling Commission’s former Executive Director of Research and Policy, Tim Miller, recently spoke to SBC’s iGaming Daily Podcast on this topic. He said: “I find it almost incredible that you read in the news all of these kinds of tech billionaires competing to be the first one to put a man on Mars. They think they can deliver that. Yet, they seem to claim that they are incapable of stopping non-GamStop ads appearing on their platforms. I mean, that’s just nonsensical. “If they don’t play their role – and frankly they’re not at the moment – it massively undermines the efforts that the rest of us are putting in place.” This development is far from the first around the ban of gambling advertising in the UK. The LHGP joins the call for blanket ban or extreme tightening of rules on gambling advertising, which includes the think tanks and gambling reform campaign groups of More-in-Common, Social Market Foundation (SMF), the Royal Society of Public Health and the Coalition to End Gambling Ads (CEGA). The CEGA, for example, has drummed up plenty of support and now has a network of over 15 local councils across the UK. Liverpool City Council was the latest to join this movement back in July due to several concerns it had with the industry, including the fact that estimated annual advertising spend is approximately £2bn. The LHGP is urging DCMS to implement this industry-wide ban as soon as possible. Dr Nason Maani, Deputy Director of LHGP, said: “The gambling industry, like other health-harming industries before it, has a well-documented history of using delay and lobbying tactics to weaken or block regulation that threatens its commercial interests. “Government must ensure the timeline for introducing this ban is not diluted or delayed by industry pressure.” SBC News has contacted the BGC for comment.