Sponsored by Casinos?

For many years sports teams have been sponsored by large corporations whose brands have become household names, and to name just a few there are Nike, Adidas and Fosters.

In the past tobacco companies played a big role in sports sponsorship, though today that has been banned in much of the world. However, since tobacco sponsorship lost its grip, there has been a growing trend for the gambling industry to become involved in sports sponsorship, and it has generally been good for sport as a whole that today many sports teams are sponsored by casinos and online gambling companies.

Looking first at football in the UK, in the Premier League alone several clubs have online casino and gambling sponsors. Aston Villa is sponsored by Genting Casinos; West Brom and Wigan have signed sponsorship deals with Bogdod and 12 BET; and Sunderland, Bolton Wanderers, Swansea and Wolves are all in sponsorship talks with various gambling companies.

In the world of motorsport, although currently there are no online casino sponsors of Formula One this is not the case in other areas of the sport. For instance Bwin is a major sponsor of MotoGP, which is the top level of motorbike racing.

Horse racing is another area where gambling company sponsorship plays an important part, and many of the major steeple chase and flat horse racing events are named after a gambling sponsor and several Eventing teams are similarly sponsored as are certain competitions.

In Australia gambling is the national pastime and more Australians gamble that the nationals of any other country, so it is not surprising that many sports teams are hoping to have casino and online gambling company sponsors.

These include several Aussie Rules football teams and there are ongoing talks between Australian Cricket and gambling company sponsors. There are even rumours that the blackjack favourite Lucky Nugget might be interested.

Despite some resistance in some quarters, gambling sponsorship of sport is here to stay, and it is proving to be beneficial for sport as a whole.