• The newly received branding rights are to promote GambleAware’s Bet Regret campaign
• A total of 42 clubs to promote safe sports betting over England and Scotland
• The move entails limited exposure for gambling brands in football

Early before the start of this year’s football season GVC Holdings confirm their intentions of handing over 42 sponsorship deals to the Bet Regret campaign, ran by GambleAware. A total of 42 clubs will donate sponsorship assets. Some of these include Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion.

What this means in straightforward terms is that the Ladbrokers branding – well known to appear on interview backdrops and LED boards – will be replaced by the Bet Regret logo.

Both GambleAware and GVC representatives expressed their best intentions in limiting the exposure of gambling brands in football, as well as encouraging moderate behavior amongst fans, while wagering on their favorite sport.

Good intentions

“Handing over this valuable inventory to GambleAware is a demonstration that we are committed to helping our customers bet in a safe and responsible way, and we look forward to continuing to promote the Bet Regret campaign in the future to help increase awareness about safer gambling.” Patrick Kerr, GVC’s head of safe gambling, said.

The entirety of this notion is an interesting swing of the pendulum, as earlier this week the Gambling Commission imposed a fine for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failure on GVC holdings. The fine in question amounted to $7.2 million.

GVC Holding’s CEO, Kenny Alexander, used this opportunity to emphasize on the fact that the faults the company is being fined for are of historic nature and were once attributable to Ladbrokes Coral, prior to GVC’s acquisition of the business.

Recently, in a move towards a similar direction, Paddy Power – a brand of Flutter Entertainment – launched a campaign called “Save our shirt”, which intends to reduce the promotion of gambling amongst football fans by stopping shirt sponsorship deals between betting operators and football clubs. Their campaign was launched through a partnership with the English Championship Club Huddersfield Town and still allows for commercial deals among operators and clubs.

Bet Regret

GambleAware’s initiative was launched earlier this year and praised as ground-breaking by the UK Minister for Sport and Civil Society. Bet Regret targets young males between the ages of 16 and 34, 87% of whom – statistics points out – are actively watching football.

The company has pointed out that their campaign is based on extensive research, academic expert consultations and studies of focus groups, which included frequent gamblers.

Marc Etches, chief executive of GambleAware said: “We are delighted that GVC Holdings has made this move to support the Bet Regret campaign. With the number of opportunities to bet and exposure to messages associated with gambling being so prevalent in football, it’s incredibly important that football fans think twice about betting when drunk, bored or chasing losses.”

Bet Regret has also received funding through various donations and has received the support of a number of UK sports networks, Google and Channel 4.