In July 2000, Rupert Murdoch’s Sky acquired an obscure online gambling brand called Surrey Sports. It was little remarked upon at the time but this deal would change football forever. Two years later, Surrey Sports had become Sky Bet and, by 2004, people watching football on Sky Sports could bet on the game via their remote. And why not? After all, as the Sky Bet tagline reminded viewers: ‘It matters more when there’s money on it.’
For football fans, nothing was ever quite the same again. ‘It’s difficult to overstate what the slogan did for the normalisation of gambling in football,’ writes Darragh McGee in his impressive study of how our national sport, seduced by profit, surrendered to the gambling industry. Having a bet, previously something working men did in dingy high street bookmakers, was suddenly ‘an adrenaline-pumping add-on that amplified how a new generation consumed live sport’. You didn’t even have to leave the sofa.
It’s now impossible to watch football, live or on television, without being encouraged to bet
Two decades on, gambling’s grip on football – and its fans – across the world is iron-clad. It is simply not possible to watch a game, live or on the television, without being encouraged to bet. Billboards and half-time adverts featuring star players and celebrities all carry the same essential message: come on, lads, have a go. The marketing tactics have at times been outrageous. One Paddy Power advert featured old ladies crossing the road as a truck hurtled towards them. Come and have a bet on which one survives. ‘Let’s make things more interesting,’ screamed the tagline.
