Football legends and politicians are calling on the Government and the FA to ‘act now’ after researchers at Bristol University found children watching Premier League games on TV are shown gambling adverts every two seconds.

The investigation found the number of gambling messages – through adverts, sponsorship, pitch-side boards, programme sponsors and other forms of messaging – had tripled from last year, with nearly 30,000 gambling messages counted over the first weekend of the EPL season in August.

Researchers at the University of Bristol who compiled a damning report to hand to the Government and the FA said the amount of gambling messaging and advertising associated with football is now ‘out of control’, and leading legends of the game, including England star Peter Shilton, are now calling for immediate action.

A ten-strong team of researchers painstakingly analysed around 24 hours of live match coverage over the opening weekend of the Premier League season – which started with a Friday night game on August 16 and continued through the weekend to the Monday night game on August 19. They also scoured 15 hours of Sky Sports News coverage, 15 hours of TalkSport radio broadcasts, and gambling advertising posted on social media.

Across all that, they counted nearly 30,000 gambling messages in just that one weekend, which was almost three times the number they counted using the same method in the same weekend last year.

The live broadcasts of the matches produced thousands of moments when gambling messages and sponsors were visible or overt. Logos and ads shown during the matches themselves more than trebled. In the opening weekend of the Premier League season last year, there were 6,966 instances of gambling messages being shown, but this year, that had risen to 23,690 – an increase of an astonishing 240 per cent.

The live match broadcast in this country with the most was West Ham v Aston Villa, which contained 6,491 individual moments when gambling messages and adverts were visible. That’s almost double the previous record when around 3,500 instances were counted.

That means that a child, or a person with a gambling addiction, would see a message about gambling 30 times in every minute of watching the West Ham v Aston Villa match – or an average of every two seconds.

What do the Bristol researchers say?

The co-lead of the report, Dr Raffaello Rossi, a marketing researcher at the University of Bristol, said the report showed gambling advertising in football was out of control and what little regulation there was did not work.

“This new evidence shows how much the industry is out of control – with gambling ads now flooding Premier League coverage,” he said. “Just a few months ago, a new code of conduct was published by the industry to curb marketing during football events, but the policy has had no impact on the volume whatsoever.

“It’s clear that the industry’s attempt to self-regulate is wholly inadequate and tokenistic. Despite having had years to put in place effective measures to protect consumers, the gambling industry continues to prioritise profit over safety,” he added.

“It’s more than a failure of policy – it’s a failure to protect the public and the problem has been allowed to proliferate unchecked. We must stop relying on ineffective self-regulation, which is designed to fail, and use existing legislation to restrict gambling marketing like most of our European counterparts. The Secretary of State has all the legal authority to act on this now,” he added.

There is a ‘whistle-to-whistle’ ban on gambling adverts while matches are going on, but the proliferation of sponsors and digital ad boards around the pitch make that policy ineffective.

England goalkeeping legend Peter Shilton, who is a recovering gambling addict himself, was a patron of the study. He said he was most concerned about children, and how rules forbidding gambling ads aimed at children were being bypassed.

“Last year’s results were bad enough, but this year’s are both shocking and disturbing,” he said. “Gambling advertising during football events has become relentless, and this study clearly shows just how out of control it has become in the UK.

“What concerns us most is the impact on children, who are being exposed to gambling marketing at an unacceptable level. We are proud to be patrons of this study, which highlights a serious and growing problem that demands urgent action,” he added.

The proliferation of gambling sites and accounts on social media, and ads before content on the likes of X, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, meant children were being relentlessly exposed to gambling advertising on their phones.

The research team reported more than 100 instances of gambling ads that weren’t flagged as such to the Advertising Standards Authority.

What do politicians say?

Overall, the Government and the football authorities need to tighten up the rules, and enforce them, Lord Foster of Bath, the former Bath Lib Dem MP Don Foster, said. He’s now chair of the Peers for Gambling Reform group in the House of Lords.

“It is simply not good enough,” he said. “The Government and the Gambling Commission must immediately act to reform gambling advertising, sponsorship and marketing. With political will, these reforms can be implemented now without the need for new legislation.

”These statistics reveal the woeful inadequacies of industry self-regulation,” he added. “Despite the purported ‘whistle-to-whistle’ ban, we continue to see games saturated with gambling advertising, sponsorship and marketing messages, with figures showing that the number of gambling messages in the opening weekend had more than doubled from the previous season to a staggering 29,145 messages,” he said.

The football authorities and the gambling industry were being ‘negligent’, the report’s co-lead author Dr Jamie Wheaton said. “The findings demonstrate the continued negligence of self-regulation of gambling marketing in football, with measures failing to reduce exposure to children and vulnerable audiences,” he said.

“Our research highlights the need for the Government to intervene and move beyond the industry’s voluntary measures, to fully ensure children and young people are protected,” he added.

The Big Step Campaign, which has been lobbying for proper regulation of gambling advertising in football for years now, and has had high profile campaigns highlighting how every day on average, one person takes their own life in the UK because of a gambling addiction, said the Government had to act.

“For every day the Government lets this continue, they too are complicit in the harm to so many young fans who just want to watch the game, not be lured into addiction. It must stop,” a spokesperson said.

What does the gambling industry say?

The gambling industry played down the extent of the exposure to gambling ads in football, and the report ‘fundamentally misunderstood both advertising and regulation’.

“The previous government stated research did not establish a causal link between exposure to advertising and the development of problem gambling,” said a spokesperson for the Betting and Gaming Council.

“Betting advertising and sponsorship must comply with strict guidelines and safer gambling tools and signposts to help for those concerned about their betting, are regularly and prominently displayed.

“BGC members already commit 20 per cent of TV, radio and digital advertising to safer gambling messaging. Independent research by the Gambling Commission found there was a ‘significant decline’ in young people’s exposure to gambling advertisements last year, while the ASA found children are seeing fewer gambling adverts on TV,” he added.

What do the authorities say?

A Gambling Commission spokesman said: “We recognise public concern about the prevalence of gambling advertising and sponsorships. Calls for a ban represent a very fundamental departure from existing legislation which permits the advertising of gambling in all forms provided there are adequate protections in place to prevent children and vulnerable people from being harmed by ads for gambling.

“A ban or significant blanket restrictions would be inconsistent with the Government’s public policy position which frames gambling as a mainstream, leisure activity,” he added.

A Government spokesperson said: “We recognise the impact harmful gambling can have on individuals and their families and are absolutely committed to strengthening protections for those at risk.

“Ministers are currently considering the full range of gambling policy, including on advertising and sponsorship, and will update in due course,” she added.