We bet that things will go great: with around nine billion euros per year, astronomical sums are turned over in Germany alone
Your fan association »Our curve e. V. «, which with its member organizations represents around 300,000 football fans nationwide, from first division to regional league, calls on politicians in a statement to regulate the advertising of sports betting in public spaces more closely. What are you essentially aiming at?
Anyone who is a fan of football or who observes this sport and all that surrounds it with open eyes can no longer avoid the phenomenon of sports betting. The providers are omnipresent not only in television broadcasts, but also in print media such as the Kicker, where in an issue with eight ads, seven advertise sports betting. This raises fundamental questions, for example, what is the situation with regard to the protection of minors and addiction prevention and the immense potential for addiction and danger. In our opinion this is a dirty business. The moral discussion must be allowed and conducted, namely whether dirty money can be pumped into football. At the same time, the aim is to protect minors, football fans and all other sports enthusiasts from this dangerous gambling addiction and to do more to educate them.
In other words, do your members feel that sports betting advertising and sponsorship are now too much of a bad thing?
With around nine billion euros per year, astronomical sums are turned over in Germany alone. The German Football Association, the German Football League and the clubs willingly accept millions from this industry, which is trying to keep its business going. Both sides are cultivating this partnership ever more closely and are increasingly delivering it to us football fans with less restraint. We say very clearly: that’s enough! We no longer want to stand idly by and watch these developments. As a fan initiative, we distance ourselves from these dodgy and dubious practices, and we ask ourselves where football is going under conditions where big business, for example, the manipulation of results is open to goal. We want to make it clear that it is not acceptable to associate or equate sports betting with football culture. We love this sport because we want to watch soccer games and not because we want to keep staring at tickets.
Why are you primarily targeting professional football?
Football and its supporters are clearly at the center of this form of gambling. And football fans, but also those active in amateur football, are naturally far more susceptible to this from the start than people who prefer to go to the opera or the theater. Sports betting advertising doesn’t just happen in football. We are therefore calling for state regulations for the sports betting industry, which must then also apply in all other areas of sport. Instead of containing it, politicians have tightened everything with the liberalized new State Gambling Treaty since the middle of last year.
We wonder why sports betting should be any different than tobacco advertising, which has disappeared from the public eye. The same should be the case with sports betting. We demand a general advertising ban for sports betting providers in stadiums and sports-related media, analogous to other advertising bans for reasons of the protection of minors. Sports betting providers should also not be allowed to advertise their products with former or active athletes, officials or other public figures.
They expect the professional clubs to commit themselves to not concluding any new sponsorship contracts or other collaborations with sports betting providers by July 1 of this year at the latest and not to renew contracts. In the case of ongoing contracts, at least 50 percent of the income should be demonstrably invested in state-recognized, independent preventive measures or in contact points for addicts. What if your demands are ignored?
First of all, it is important to us to initiate a broad discussion about the devastating effects of sports betting and to sensitize society to it. We wanted to advance our position last summer when the new State Treaty on Gambling came into force. But then this topic was overshadowed by Corona, so that we now consider the beginning of the second half of the Bundesliga to be a good time. We are initially relying on voluntary commitments by those involved in paid football.
Maybe a pious wish?
If we get the impression that nothing is moving and everything is going on like this, we have the possibility, thanks to the various member structures, to give more emphasis to our demands. If there is no other way of decoupling football and the sports betting industry, members could, for example, submit appropriate proposals to the annual general meetings. We saw the impact of this kind of thing, also in the media, at FC Bayern and the demand to end the cooperation with Qatar. Similar discussions could soon arise everywhere on the subject of sports betting. Other countries like Italy or Spain are way ahead of us in this regard.
