If you watch sports on TV, it’s impossible to miss.
Gambling logos, ads and sports betting endorsements are also online, on streaming services and on billboards.
The “tsunami” of advertising, as it is called, followed legal changes in Canada in 2021, when sports betting on individual events was legalized. Since then, provincial gaming agencies across the country have begun accepting bets on sporting events.
Much of the advertising is aimed at potential gamblers in Ontario, the first province in Canada to open the industry to private companies.
- Watch “The Gamblification of Canada” at The fifth estate on CBC-TV at 9pm Thursday or watch on CBC Gem.
And the headlines of many ads are high-profile people called brand ambassadors or celebrities and sports stars paid to promote the companies they represent.
However, the CBC contacted the three hockey stars The fifth estate as part of an investigation into sports betting in Canada, they refused to talk about their brands, despite deals reportedly worth several million dollars to do just that.
The fifth estate the requests for interviews followed a recent UK ban on adverts featuring sports stars and other celebrities due to their appeal to children.
Among the three ambassadors is the Great One himself, Wayne Gretzky.
“Every bet with BetMGM has the potential for greatness,” Gretzky tells the camera as a lion made of ice explodes from a frozen fountain behind him.
He is joined by two of the best young hockey players in the NHL today, Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, who also represent the bookies.
I am looking for more information
The fifth estate wanted to know more about the deals with the three sports stars.
“I appreciate the question, but after all that I don’t think I’m going to get into it too much, honestly,” said Matthews, the Toronto Maple Leafs star. The fifth estate recently.
We caught up with him after training in Toronto to ask about his relationship with Bet99, a sports betting company operating in Ontario. On Twitter, Matthews says he’s “proud” of his “partnership” and tells his fans to “stay tuned for more!”
WATCH | Leafs center doesn’t want to discuss endorsement deal:
Fifth Estate host Bob McKeown approaches Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews with questions about his contract with Bet99.
But he did not want to talk about the deal with The fifth estate.
“Do you have any more questions about hockey?” He said. “I’d just like to go ahead with it if that’s okay. If not, we can just move forward.”
The fifth estate he reached out to the agents for all three hockey players, asking for interviews. In all three cases, our requests remained unanswered.
Why don’t they want to talk to us?
We also contacted BetMGM, who made deals with Gretzky and McDavid. A company representative told us they were too busy to talk to us.
These sports stars turned brand ambassadors are reportedly making millions of dollars to represent and probably talk about sports gambling companies, so why don’t they want to talk to us?
“I think they’re compromised, that’s what I think. And I think they should know better,” said Brian Masse, the NDP member of parliament for Windsor West, Ont., who has pushed for more than a decade to legalize sports betting in Canada. .
Before single-event sports betting became legal in Canada, it existed as a gray market operated in part by organized crime.
Masse argued that with legalization, the gray market could be suppressed and Canada could build a new, safer system and benefit from the taxes generated by the industry.
In Canada, according to the Canadian Gaming Association, the industry is worth about $14 billion a year.
However, now that sports betting on individual events is legal in Canada, Masse is frustrated with the way it’s being done, particularly the use of brand ambassadors who are active players.
Concerns about possible effects on children
“They’ve already been successful in their careers. Their value … should be their performance, not trying to influence people to go to a product to bet on them or the performance of their peers,” he said.
Masse worries about how this could affect children, who look up to sports stars.
“I think about the fact that you’ve got kids sitting with their parents and other family members and they’re overwhelmed during a game about betting on people watching on a screen… common sense should stop some of this, but unfortunately right now it doesn’t seem to be the case. ”
In the United Kingdom, sports betting and the advertising that accompanies it have been a reality since 2007.
In 2021, there were 1.4 million gambling addicts in the UK, according to research by international research group YouGov. A 2019 survey by the UK Gambling Commission classified an additional 55,000 children, aged 11 to 16, as “problem gamblers”.
In another analysis, the University of Liverpool looked at data from seven major online gaming operators. It showed that 86 per cent of so-called gross gambling profits come from just five per cent of UK gambling users
The gross gambling return is the amount of money the operator takes from the user after winnings are paid out, but before the deduction of operating costs.
‘They offered enormous sums of money’
Over the years, the UK has seen its share of celebrities and sports stars promoting sports betting.
“I imagine history would judge them very harshly,” said Will Prochaska, director of strategy at Gambling with Lives, a UK-based group that advocates for tighter gambling controls.
“They would be offered enormous sums of money to, I think, tarnish their own reputations in the interest of profit for the operators of the games of chance. I guess they don’t realize the damage they are doing.”
A 2021 study by Public Health England found that an average of 409 people a year take their own lives by suicide related to problem gambling. The revelation generated headlines and outrage.
Parents of addicted gamblers who have died by suicide have given up and the UK has changed its regulations on gambling advertising.
Under the new rules, which came into effect in October 2022, if a celebrity is “likely to appeal to children or young people” then they are not allowed to appear in gambling ads, effectively banning all sports, TV and social media stars.
‘Tethered’ to sports
This is not the case in Canada.
“If you consider Gretzky’s case, like many other athletes, what you end up with here is a message that gambling is not only acceptable, but desirable for an entire generation,” said Darragh McGee, a lecturer in the department of health at the University of Bath in the West of England.
“A lot of them struggle to go 90 minutes without having to bet on a game,” said McGee, who studies the effects of gambling on young men.
“It speaks to the way gambling is embedded in sports in ways that have changed our experience of sports.”
In Canada, the Canadian Gaming Association represents the sports betting industry. Its members include some of the biggest companies in gambling, including BetMGM and Bet99, which have signed deals with NHL stars Gretzky, McDavid and Matthews.
“Companies have a right to do that,” said association executive director Paul Burns. “We knew there would be more advertising because it was allowed.
“People will change the channel,” he said. “I know people who do that … I don’t think any company is intentionally trying to do anything untoward to influence or target young people.”
In Ontario, the only province where private bookmakers are allowed to operate, the industry has exploded. In the spring of 2022, there were 18 operators of online games of chance. Today there are 67 sports betting and online casino operators.
As the industry grows, Prochaska has a message for Canada.
“You will see a gambling industry that is now much more profitable and therefore more powerful,” he said.
“And on the other side of that, you’re going to see a significant increase in people suffering from addiction, and people suffering less harm, and you’re going to see more deaths.”