Research has found that nearly 30,000 gambling-related messages were broadcast across various media channels, a 240% increase from the same period last year.
A new study led by the University of Bristol shows that gambling-related marketing activities significantly increased during the opening weekend of the Premier League.
The study indicates that gambling-related messages have nearly tripled compared to the same period last year, raising concerns about the effectiveness of industry self-regulation and its potential impact on fans.
The survey shows that over a single weekend, 29,145 gambling messages appeared on TV, radio, and social media, an increase from last year's record of 10,999 messages.
The study also found that there is a large amount of gambling marketing on social media platforms, with ad views exceeding 24 million times. Notably, 74% of content marketing posts could not be clearly identified as advertisements, potentially violating advertising regulations.
This finding has prompted experts, politicians, and former athletes to call for stricter regulation of football gambling marketing—they believe that the current self-regulation model is insufficient to prevent consumers, especially children and vulnerable groups, from being overly exposed to gambling messages.
Dr. Raffaello Rossi, co-lead author of the study, stated: "This new evidence shows how out of control the industry is—gambling ads now saturate Premier League coverage. Just a few months ago, the industry released a new code of conduct to curb marketing during football matches, but this policy has had no impact on the volume of advertising.
"This is not just a policy failure—it is a failure to protect the public, allowing the problem to spread unchecked. We must stop relying on doomed-to-fail ineffective self-regulation and, like most of our European counterparts, use existing legislation to limit gambling marketing."
Based on these findings, the University of Bristol's research team reported over 100 potentially non-compliant social media ads to the Advertising Standards Authority for investigation.
