FOOTBALL'S GAMBLING ADDICTION
07 June 2021
FOOTBALL'S GAMBLING ADDICTION
In her debut documentary, life-long football fan and former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson explores the uncomfortable relationship between gambling and football. She investigates why the beautiful game has become so dependent on the money that gambling provides and explores concerns about the harm this might be causing particularly for younger fans.
With the law on gambling now under review, Davidson asks difficult questions about how we got here, why the Government has taken so long to address this and if it’s time for football to re-examine fundamentally its relationship with the gambling industry.
Former Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson proves an impressive journalist in this shocking report on rising rates of problem gambling. "We can't afford for the Government to be asleep at the wheel," she says. Davidson makes her case with real conviction, beginning with a look at how gambling has infected football over the last few years - with clubs earning tens of millions of pounds from advertising and betting partnerships. So much so, that some clubs now reportedly earn upwards of 80 per cent of their commercial revenue via gambling. And her examples of young lives lost and careers ruined through gambling are upsetting enough, but her stories of how the industry's insatiable quest for profit has led them to target younger and younger consumers will be enough to send a chill down any parent's spine.
Sunday Telegraph
Critics Choice
Sunday Times
