Labour MP and chair of the All Party Group for Gambling Related Harm Carolyn Harris has said that the research gathered by the EFL for the UK’s gambling review is flawed and should be ignored by gambling minister Chris Philp.
Vita’s assessment questioned if the research was undertaken with a pre-determined conclusion.
According to a report in the BBC, the research in question was commissioned by the EFL, a league that is currently sponsored by Sky Bet and whose clubs are in receipt of up to £40 million per year through sponsorship deals with gambling companies. The BBC revealed that the evidence submitted from the EFL’s research has found that there is no clear indication that sponsorship influences fan participation in betting.
The research also found that gambling participation in the general public had remained at around 9% from 2010 to 2018 and that in that time problem gambling in sports had halved from 6% to 3%.
However, an assessment of the evidence carried out by research company Vita and commissioned by campaign group Clean Up Gambling has found that these results and conclusions are ‘flawed’ and ‘misleading’. Vita’s assessment questioned if the research was ‘undertaken with a pre-determined conclusion.’
Vita’s assessment also found that the surveys carried out by the EFL were based on a fan’s likelihood to gamble if the team they supported had a gambling sponsor. However, the surveys completely disregarded any other forms of sponsorship or gambling advertising in football as potential triggers for gambling activity.
According to Vita’s research:
“The assumption that support for a team determines the extent of [sponsorship] exposure is deeply flawed, given the evidence of how much gambling promotion is all over football content of all kinds.”
The EFL evidence and research is significant as gambling minister Chris Philp has previously stated that any changes to gambling laws in the UK will be based on evidence supplied by relevant groups and associations.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sports Desk podcast, MP Harris said:
“A decent thing would be to withdraw [the EFL] evidence, but they’re not going to do that. So you need to take it with a massive pinch of salt which I suspect [the government] do.
[The minister] can ignore it, he can choose to ignore it or discard it. And I would like to think that he would, but we know he’s overwhelmed with evidence at the moment. I don’t think the gambling minister is entirely hoodwinked. I think he sees a lot of the content for his white paper as being flawed.
The minister has spent a lot of time looking at the background. I know he’s been to the gambling companies, I know he’s met with the trade body, but he’s also met with families of people who have committed suicide.
I think he absorbs things and he is capable of disseminating truth from fiction. Hopefully the white paper will reflect that.”
The gambling review white paper is due to be published in the coming weeks following a delay due to a cabinet reshuffle late last year.
Ciaran has been working within the Gambling Industry as a deep analyst since 2019. His deep knowledge and understanding of all the gambling regulations, and processes makes him a true asset, and an always valuable point of view for Gambling Industry News, allowing us to cover every topics from a brand new perspective.