Over 5,000 gambling references in a single Premier League broadcast
Between shirts, billboards and TV advertising, football fans in the UK are overwhelmed by gambling messages.
A new University of Bristol study has revealed the scale of gambling advertising during Premier League football matches, recording more than 5,000 betting references during a single live broadcast.
The research, published in October 2025, warns that such saturation risks normalising gambling behaviour among fans and may expose viewers to unlicensed betting operators.
Researchers monitored multiple games from the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons, counting every visual appearance of a logo or reference, whether on shirts, pitch-side LED boards, or television graphics. In some matches, gambling imagery appeared an average of once every 20 seconds. Several of these advertisements were linked to brands not licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, despite being visible to domestic audiences.
Lead author Dr Raffaello Rossi described the findings as evidence of a “wall-to-wall presence” of betting promotion in football coverage.
Only 1% safer gambling messages
The study also found that safer gambling messages were vastly outnumbered by brand promotions. Out of thousands of gambling references, fewer than 1% contained responsible gambling reminders or helpline information.
Dr Rossi said the findings expose “serious cracks” in the system of industry self-regulation and called for stronger oversight to prevent unlicensed operators from benefiting from Premier League broadcasts.
A Premier League spokesperson reiterated that clubs have voluntarily agreed to remove gambling logos from front-of-shirt positions by the 2026/27 season and said the league “continues to work with stakeholders to promote responsible gambling advertising.”
Earlier this month, it was revealed that almost half of Britons had gambled in the last month. Today's news comes at a time when the UK government is poised to increase taxation on gambling operators.
