The University of Bristol’s latest audit once again highlights how deeply embedded Premier League gambling ads remain in matchday coverage. Researchers tracked live TV, radio and social media output across the first weekend of the new season. Despite self-regulation and sponsorship shifts, betting visibility barely moved.

  • Researchers logged 27,440 gambling messages during the opening weekend, down slightly from 29,145 last year but nearly triple 2023. Live broadcasts alone produced over 21,800 exposures, averaging 12.6 per minute. The Wolves v Man City fixture delivered the highest count at 5,262 individual messages.

  • More than 60% of all in-match messages appeared during the industry’s so-called “whistle-to-whistle” ban. LED pitchside ads and shirt branding accounted for most exposures, showing that visual marketing still circumvents the ad-break restrictions. Over 13,000 gambling messages were seen in those periods alone.

  • Sky Sports News generated 4,510 gambling messages in a single day, with press conferences and interviews overtaking commercial spots as the biggest source. TalkSport carried 142 ads across 11.5 hours. Just 12% of all identified ads contained safer-gambling or harm-reduction messages.

  • Unlicensed operators continued to surface on UK screens, accounting for roughly 9% of live match ads and 12% of Sky Sports News mentions. Researchers linked this to lingering sponsorships and white-label legacy deals still visible despite code updates.

  • On social media, licensed betting brands posted 973 ads across four days, attracting 34 million views – up from 24 million last year. Nearly 70% of organic promotional posts weren’t clearly marked as advertising, further blurring the line between content and marketing for Premier League gambling ads.

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