Gambling agrees to football ad ban. It's a good bet that more restrictions will follow

It looks like there’ll be no more Ray Winstone banging on about the odds available on the next goal scorer while you’re watching football, before telling you he gambles responsibility with Bet365.

Britain’s bookies have provisionally agreed a “whistle to whistle” TV sports advertising ban that will halt such commercials while games are in progress. In other words, they’ve have moved before the current government, or a successor led by Jeremy Corbyn, act to force their hands.

The similarity of what they’ve offered to do to proposals tabled by Labour is marked. The deal still requires ratification, but that’s a formality. It’s much better to jump than be pushed.

There’s an exemption for horse racing, which will upset some campaigners. But the entire industry would be in the knackers yard without gambling. And it isn’t a big draw for the under 18s in the same way that football is.

How much will it hurt that sport, which has been the main area of focus, although others are covered too? Football has behaved as a magic money tree ever since the launch of the Premiership, fuelled by the ever escalating size of the broadcast rights deals it has been able to secure.

Gambling plays an important, but not central, role in making those rights profitable. The industry’s ads peppered the coverage of the last World Cup on commercial TV and are heavily featured in internationals.

They provide revenue streams for BT and Sky’s coverage of the Premiership and European club tournaments too.

Losing them will hurt. But it won’t kill the golden goose.

Of far greater concern to them will be the interest in streaming games among web giants, something the Premier League has been doing everything in its power to foster.

Amazon bought a slightly odd looking package featuring two sets of games on bank holidays during the last rights auction. If it likes what it sees and decides to deploy its big guns, the unhappiness created by the loss of a few gambling ads will pale by comparison. Amazon’s big guns are very big. It can out shoot anyone it wants to.

Football’s bosses, its coaches, and its players, can thus be reassured that they’ll continue to be kept in the style to which they have become accustomed for the foreseeable future.

This should be borne in mind as campaigners gear up for phase two.

It has already been noted that the deal does not include either shirt sponsorship nor digital advertising around the pitch.

It’s true that these don’t have quite the same impact as Ray quoting odds in the middle of a game. But the ban isn’t really whistle to whistle while they’re around. They are seen equally by adults, who are in theory capable of resisting them, and children, who aren’t. It’s worth noting that a recent report suggested 50,000 under 17s are gambling addicts.

That being the case, campaigners are unlikely to drop this ball. Sooner or later, politicians will pick it up too. If you’ll forgive me, I’d be willing to bet the farm on that.

Clubs sponsored by gambling outfits had best resign themselves to the fact that they are having their last throw of the dice. If they aren’t prepared to wean themselves off their gambling addiction, alongside their broadcasting partners, someone will do it for them. They might like to bear in mind that there will be a stadium full of bad publicity for them in the interim.