BGC Welcomes New Sponsorship Codes from Sports Bodies

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has expressed its support for the newly established Codes of Conduct for Gambling Related Agreements, introduced by several major sporting organizations. These codes aim to enhance standards for sports sponsorship deals significantly.

The BGC has collaborated with prominent national sports bodies, including the Premier League, English Football League, The FA, Women’s Super League, Rugby Football League, British Horseracing Authority, and official organizations representing darts, snooker, and boxing. Together, they have developed a cross-industry voluntary code of conduct for betting sponsorship deals, with each body tailoring a specific code for their respective sport.

This new framework, initiated by the BGC, establishes higher standards for safer gambling sponsorship, focusing on four key principles: protection, social responsibility, reinvestment, and integrity.

Protection involves ensuring that gambling sponsorship is designed to limit its exposure and promotion to individuals under 18 and those at risk of gambling-related harm. Social responsibility mandates that gambling sponsorship be promoted and executed in a socially responsible manner, including incorporating education and awareness messages in all marketing activities. Reinvestment requires that commercial income generated from gambling sponsorship be reinvested into infrastructure and programs benefiting fans and communities. This includes improving infrastructure and providing community and grassroots participation opportunities. Lastly, maintaining sporting integrity ensures that gambling sponsorship does not compromise the integrity of sporting competitions or harm the welfare of participants.

Several organizations, including the EFL, Premier League, The FA, Women’s Super League, and the British Horseracing Authority, have already committed to adopting the new Code of Conduct for Gambling Related Agreements in football ahead of the new season. Additional sporting bodies are expected to follow suit shortly.

This code introduces practical changes for sports sponsorship. For football, it means designing betting sponsorships to limit exposure to children and those at risk of harm, ensuring professional footballers are aware of available support services, and prohibiting club social media accounts from linking to betting operator websites. Clubs will also ensure that a reasonable portion of gambling sponsorship assets promote safer gambling messaging, which may include perimeter boards and match day programs.

For horseracing, the new code ensures that betting promotions are not directly targeted at individuals under 18, and appropriate age awareness arrangements are enforced on course.

BGC members are committed to ensuring that sports betting and sponsorship are conducted in a socially responsible manner and have been actively working to implement these new standards. BGC members provide vital funding to various sports, from grassroots to elite levels. The Sky Bet-sponsored English Football League and its clubs receive £40 million, William Hill sponsors the Scottish Professional Football League, and other BGC members, such as Betway and Kindred, support football and other sports. Horseracing receives £350 million, while snooker, darts, and rugby league, currently sponsored by Betfred, receive over £12.5 million.

Moreover, BGC member Entain’s Pitching In sponsors the Trident League, supporting 250 clubs at steps three and four of the English football pyramid, significantly benefiting grassroots football. Flutter has invested millions in various community sports through its Cash4Clubs scheme.

The regulated betting and gaming industry in the UK supports 110,000 jobs, generates £4.2 billion in tax revenue, and contributes £7.1 billion to the economy. Approximately 22.5 million adults in Britain place bets each month, and the most recent NHS Health Survey for England estimates that 0.4 percent of the adult population are problem gamblers.

Michael Dugher, BGC Chair said: “I welcome the publication of these landmark codes that BGC has led on, which sets new standards for sports. These new measures are good for sport, good for BGC members and good for fans.

“BGC members are proud to support some of the most popular sports up and down the country, and that support goes hand in hand with these principles.

“That includes protecting the young, being socially responsible, delivering investment in communities, particularly working class communities which share such close ties to these sports, and maintaining the sporting integrity which makes British clubs the best in the world.

“These codes will a be a big step forward and is something we have been working on for many years, long before the white paper. Our work in this area is another demonstration of our commitment to ensure that any betting sponsorship agreement must be undertaken in a responsible way.

“It is the latest in a long list of measures the BGC has launched to raise standards, including betting operators’ logos being removed from children’s clothing – including replica football kits – and the whistle to whistle ban which has reduced the number of TV betting commercials viewed by children during live sports before the watershed by 97 per cent.

“BGC members are committed to safer gambling and signposting available support regularly and prominently, while our largest members helped deliver a record donation of £172m to tackle gambling harm between 2019 and 2024.

“When we say we are raising standards, we mean business, and this is further concrete evidence of that determination.”