On the 22nd of June, the English Football Association announced that it will be ending all its current deals and sponsorships with betting companies. While this will affect a number of major entities, the FA will mostly be severing ties with Ladbrokes online casino. This decision came somewhat suddenly, and was largely unexpected despite the recent controversy that has surrounded the FA’s association with these gambling companies.
In fact, the announcement came hot on the heels (basically, a couple of days after) of former Manchester City and Burnley midfielder Joey Barton’s denouncement of the FA and its double-standards. Last April, Barton was discovered for having made over 1,200 bets throughout the course of ten years, including 30 on games played by his own team. The FA swiftly punished him for said offence by fining him £30,000 and suspending him for 18 months. Barton then made the following statement to the Sunday Times - ‘What are the FA going to do, march into Ladbrokes and say: “Show us everyone who’s had a bet on this game?” Ladbrokes are going to say: “Eff off, we pay you £10m a year, keep your mouth shut.” Do the FA not understand that’s hush money? Because if they don’t do it to Ladbrokes, they can’t do it to Betfair, Paddy Power, William Hill.
They’ve given me such a harsh sentence because they want to maintain to the world, to the people who buy TV rights, that this is a very high-integrity game here. People who work for betting companies have told me that’s the key issue. The FA have no actual interest in [tackling] betting. And they can’t solve the problem, especially when they’ve got Ladbrokes as a partner. Because the players are going: “I’m not doing anything wrong.”
Barton commented on the hypocrisy of the FA’s condemnation of players betting, when the same players run around on the field with the names of betting companies on their shirts. It seems that Barton’s words caused enough of a stir for the FA to seriously re-consider its standing as an official governing body.
Chief Executive of the FA, Martin Glenn, told the Daily Express: ‘We would like to thank Ladbrokes for both being a valued partner over the last year and for their professionalism and understanding about our change of policy around gambling.’
The FA have instead proposed the introduction of a levy to be imposed on bookies and major sportsbook casinos like Unibet, Paddy Power, Betfair and more. This means they would be legally bound to pay the levy to the FA. This could perhaps make up for the approximate £4 million (not £10, as claimed by Barton) that the FA receives in sponsorship revenue from Ladbrokes alone. The governing entity has claimed that it would then re-invest the money from the levy back into its grass-root priorities – meaning directly into teams and clubs. However, at this stage, the proposal has only been mentioned by the FA and no legal proceedings have been enacted towards the establishment of said levies. As it remains, it’s highly unlikely that betting companies would allow this to happen in the first place. After all, the betting industry in the UK is currently one of the strongest. In fact, as this online casino review site holds, other countries like Canada lose millions to the UK in terms of offshore betting. Canada’s loss, Britain’s gain. Whether this would still be the case if levies were to suddenly be put in place is doubtful.
Even if the FA has pulled all its deals with betting companies, this does not mean that the gambling industry will no longer be involved in football in any way. League sponsorships like the ones from SkyBet in the Football League and other team sponsorships are still very much valid and in place.
The FA’s proposal of a return to grass-roots sounds like excellent news for football teams all round, as it reflects a surge towards protecting the player before the money. However, in reality, this remains a hypothetical dream in an otherwise betting dominated sport.