Many types of gambling marketing occur around football in the United Kingdom. One type of gambling involves TV adverts during live matches. The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency and features of gambling advertising on UK commercial television during the 2022 Men’s Football World Cup in Qatar. The researchers analyzed 30 matches shown on the commercial broadcaster ITV. They found that there were 176 gambling-related adverts across the 30 matches. A total of 156 adverts were from gambling companies or promoted specific gambling products (e.g., lotteries). Further analysis was conducted on these 156 adverts.
On average, there were 5 adverts per match. Eight different gambling operators advertised on ITV. Matches that featured home nations (England and Wales) had more gambling adverts than matches not featuring a home nation. Most adverts (81%) were shown pre-match. The most common types of adverts were financial inducements (42%), brand awareness (27%), and direct promotion of live odds (25%). Most (89%) of the 156 gambling adverts displayed a safer gambling message. Among them, 110 gambling adverts encouraged viewers to “take time to think.” Of note, the only adverts that did not feature any safer gambling messaging were for the National Lottery and the People’s Postcode Lottery.
