Henry
(Jingle)
Hi and welcome
to UCFB Radio, my name is Henry Charles in today’s show I will be discussing
different research methods.
First of all, let’s introduce the topic chosen. In recent
years Premier League shirts have been adorned with more and more betting
companies for sponsors.
On Wednesday the 5th of September 2018, The
Guardian reported that the NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens had
deplored Premier League Betting sponsors stating that they “ignore the plight
of UK gambling addicts.” Charity GambleAware went on to back Stevens’s
statements saying that they were “seriously concerned the relationship between
sport and gambling has reached a tipping point.” (Campbell, 2018)
For the purposes of my
research project I will only be focusing on the English Premier League sides
and their shirt sponsors to evaluate whether the increase in Premier League
shirt’s sponsored by betting companies are contributing to a growing public
health crisis in the United Kingdom.
The co-founder
of the charity ‘Gambling with Lives’ Charles Ritchie was left with little to
imagine about the problems that gambling addicts in the UK face. His son, Jack,
was a “big Sheffield United supporter and loved football.”
A gambling
commission report says there are 430,000 problem gamblers in the UK with a
further two million people at risk of falling into that category.
A more recent
study by the commission states the number of children classed as problem
gamblers had quadrupled since 2016 to more than 50,000 in 2018.
Charles
Ritchie’s son was one of these people with an issue with gambling. and
committed suicide off the back of his gambling problems.
He states “"There is very
clear evidence of the impact it has on young people in particular, and there
are numerous studies which show how aware young people are of gambling
companies, and the number of them who follow firms on social media.
"Research shows betting is a solitary
activity, but it's not portrayed that way on TV. It's shown as a joyous
communal activity, but that's not true."
Ritchie wants
sport and football in particular to go further by banning adverts on shirts and
around pitch perimeters, much in the way smoking and alcohol products have
been. (Magowan, 2018)
Qualitative vs Quantitative – What are they and why
are they important.
Qualitative research is used
to try and discover process and meaning through rich description. Qualitative
data methods rely on text and image data, have unique steps in data analysis
and draw on diverse designs. (Libguides.usc.edu, 2019)
Quantitative research methods
are reliant on objectifiable measurements which are then analysed by using data
harvested through the use of surveys, polls and questionnaires. Quantitative
research allows researchers to determine the relationship between one thing, an
independent variable and another, a dependant or an outcome variable. (Libguides.usc.edu,
2019)
How quantative methods were used?
In the research paper “Shirt
sponsorship by gambling companies in the English and Scottish Premier Leagues”
Bunn et al use quantitative research methods.
The first research that was
conducted in this paper was to verify which teams have competed in the Premier
League since it’s inception in 1992. At the time of the paper’s publication,
the English Premier League had hosted thirty-eight teams since its inaugural
season. The researchers were able to obtain this information from the Premier
League’s website. This data was critical in being able to determine the
sponsors that were emblazoned onto the shirts of sides that had competed in the
league since it was founded. (Bunn et al, 2018)
The researchers then needed to
establish which companies had their logos on the jerseys of every Premier
League football team since it’s founding. This involved the researchers relying
on the use of secondary research which involves using existing research as a
source of data analysis. The researchers then delved into official league
handbooks and a website which has archived football kits, www.historicalfootballkits.com, to identify sponsors for every team that has
competed in the English Premier League.
The researchers having
collated images of the shirts, then created a database of data which could then
be used to analyse trends over the years since the Premier League was founded.
They also made note of the Gambling Act 2005, which relaxed laws on gambling
companies.
What emerged as a result of the quantitative data
obtained?
The first meaningful data to
this research emerged when they identified the first Premier League shirt to
have been sponsored by a gambling company. This was the shirt of Fulham FC who
were sponsored by Betfair in 2002.
This was then quickly followed
by five other Premier League clubs between the years of 2004-2009. (Middlesbrough,
Blackburn, Aston Villa, Sunderland and Tottenham.)
The researchers were then able
to identify the mean number of shirts in the Premier league which were
sponsored by gambling companies before 2005 which stood at 0.31 against a range
of fifteen shirts.
The researchers then observed
post 2005 a dramatic increase in gambling sponsorship seeing the mean number of
shirts with gambling companies as sponsors rise to 6.25.
The researchers
concluded ‘that there has been a change in the fundamentals of the
determinants of sponsorship after the change in legislation.’ The legislation
to which they refer being the Gambling Act 2005.
A 2012 report from the
government, ‘The Gambling Act 2005: A bet worth taking?’ states, “An area
of consensus between industry bodies, faith groups and academics alike was the
need for more and better evidence on problem gambling and specifically about
its causes.” They also stated, “In addition to allowing British online
companies registered by the Gambling Commission to advertise, the 2005 Act also
allowed online companies based in the EU and EEA States, including Gibraltar,
to advertise in the UK.” (House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport
Committee, 2012)
Before 2005 and the Gambling Act, the mean average of
Premier League shirts was 0.31 against a range of 15. After the introduction of
legislation this jumped to a mean average of 6.25 against a range of 15. The
legislation, in allowing advertising of gambling companies in the UK and EU,
opened the floodgates of exposure for these companies to slowly dominate the
advertising in the Premier League on team jerseys.
What methods could be used to further understand the relationship
between Public health and gambling sponsorship in the Premier League.
Further qualitative research
methods could be used to further understand the relationship between public
health and the Premier League’s gambling endorsements through the use of focus
groups.
This would allow us to
understand how individuals have been affected by sponsorship and to see if
Premier League football fans are more likely to be problem gamblers due to the
exposure to advertising, they receive. It would also allow us to understand
whether participants have ever elected into the ‘self-exclusions scheme’, where
people can ask a betting company to add them to a list so they cannot gamble
anymore and whether advertising in the Premier League affects their recovery.
Further evidence
on problem gambling comes from overseas studies, in particular those conducted
in America and Australia. However, such studies must be treated with caution
when attempting to draw conclusions about the UK gambling market. Nottingham
Trent University professor Griffiths stated, “the applicability of evidence
from overseas needs to be assessed further because regulatory, geographic and
venue information as well as machine characteristics (including the size of
stakes and prizes) in other jurisdictions differ.” (Bunn et al, 2019)
Qualitative research allows
for the researchers to ask more complex questions to understand the
relationship between Premier League gambling advertising and the betting habits
of UK consumers as a result of this sponsorship. Taylor et al explains that
qualitative research is the study to collect ‘descriptive data, people’s own
words and records of people behaviour.’ (Taylor et al, 2015)
Sport is a
cultural product, socially consumed (watched, practiced, discussed, and bet
upon). The social stigma attached to gambling habits might be shifting towards
its naturalisation, a long-term process that advertising cannot carry out on
its own but can certainly facilitate. (D.
Griffiths et al., 2019)
.
D. Griffiths et
al contend that it can be seen in today’s society that gambling has been
normalised. Mainstream sports news websites and betting websites are seen in
partnerships with each other, some even have their own betting companies which
they endorse. (D. Griffiths et al.,
2019)
By holding
focus groups and one on one interviews, we would gain a much deeper
understanding of the challenges Premier League football supporters face. It
would allow us to gain insight into how these advertisements affect the thought
process of supporters. It would help the researchers to understand whether an
inadvertent effect of the 2005 gambling act was the normalisation of gambling
in modern day society.
To help further understand how gambling
advertising could affect public health in the UK we are going to look at a
research paper from Australia.
Qualitative
studies have already taken place in Australia. However, as Griffiths of
Nottingham Trent University said we must take some ‘caution’ when considering
overseas studies results and applying them to our society here in the UK today.
However, it will help us to understand the kind of research that can be done to
understand if there is indeed a public health crisis in the UK with problem
gambling.
Hing et al in
the research paper ‘Sports bettors responses to sports embedded gambling promotions:
Implications for compulsive consumption. They contend in their introduction to
the paper that ‘little in known about how sports betters, including those who
meet criteria as problem gambler’s, perceive and act on embedded gambling
promotions during sports broadcasts.’ (Hing
et al, 2015)
The researchers
undertook a qualitative study involving thirty-one treatment seeking and fifty
non treatment seeking internet gamblers. The field of participants in this
research was selected using purposive sampling techniques, where the researcher
wants to focus on a particular characteristic of the population and thus is
selective over who they choose to participate.
In a qualitative
study on the effects of gambling advertising on problem gamblers, the researchers
contend that ‘promotions for sports betting and other internet gambling forms
invokes urges to gamble, including amongst those actively attempting to limit
or cease gambling.’
A proportion of
the participants reported that they gambled more when bonus offers for sport’s
bets matched deposits, however this was not as common in non-treatment seekers.
Hing et al used
the likert scale as a method of using quantitative data but assigning it to
qualitative data. A numerical value is added to each potential choice and a
mean figure is calculated at the end of the survey
In a quantitative
survey respondents were asked about eleven different promotional techniques
used by gambling to promote sport. Amongst the 544 respondents who had all
taken part in sports betting of forms 273 of them (50.2%) were categorised as
non-problem gamblers, 97 (17.8%) as low risk gamblers, 54 (9.9%) as moderate
risk gamblers and 120 (22.1%) as problem gamblers. The high numbers were
expected by the researchers due to the purposive sampling methods. (Hing et al, 2015)
We will be
focusing on one question in particular from their survey and analysing the
results. The question asked was ‘How much do you approve or disapprove of
gambling logos on players uniforms. Five indicated that the respondent
‘strongly approves’ and a one indicated that a respondent ‘strongly
disapproves’. In the responses amongst non-problem gamblers and low risk
gamblers the mean average of responses was 2.9. What is then interesting is
that when the moderate risk gamblers and problem gamblers were asked the same
question the approval rate rises. In moderate gamblers the mean response was
3.2 indicating a stronger approval than the lower risk groups. Staggeringly the
problem gamblers approve even more with their mean response at 3.4. (Hing et al, 2015)
This isn’t only
a trend the researchers discovered in one of the eleven questions asked. It was
consistent with every question asked on other gambling promotions such as
stadium signage, advertisements in commercial breaks and live studio crosses to
gambling operators to discuss betting odds.
Binde (2009)
contends that gambling advertisements and promotions alert problem gamblers
about gambling, that it arouses an urge to gamble and that it could undermine
decisions to curtail gambling. (Bunn et al, 2019)
To further this
‘The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’ (American
Psychiatric Association, 2013) introduced compulsive gambling into its
inventory of mental health disorder’s in 1980. It contends that gambling
disorders are a non- substance related form of substance abuse disorder. (Bunn
et al, 2019)
Conclusions.
We can take many
lessons from the research conducted here in the United Kingdom in the paper “Shirt
sponsorship by gambling companies in the English and Scottish Premier Leagues.”
They use quantitative data to
understand the simple problem of the influx of gambling companies sponsoring
Premier League sides jerseys. By creating a database of all kits worn by
Premier League teams since its inception they were able to identify how many
teams over the years have been sponsored by gambling companies.
They could then track the
increase in the mean average of shirts adorned with gambling companies and
analyse whether since the introduction of the Gambling Act 2005 there has been
an influx of these companies.
The researchers discovered
that since the introduction of the Gambling act 2005 that there is a clear
increase in the mean number of shirts sponsored by betting companies. Further
qualitative research would help us to understand better the impact that on public
health and indeed if there is public approval for gambling laws to be as relaxed
as they are.
There is a need
for a study into the impact of gambling shirt sponsorship in the Premier League
like the one conducted in Australia. Using the Likert scale is a great way of
using quantitative values but giving them qualitative qualities, allowing for a
deeper understanding into the impact of gambling sponsorship on public health
in the United Kingdom. We may not know it, but we are seeing the effects of
gambling sponsorship on our society today, a proper study needs to be conducted
so as to understand problems in the 2005 gambling act and to see the impact
advertising has on young people and also people who are already problem
gamblers.
In the paper
“Patterns of Sports Sponsorship” Maher et al revealed that in a 2006 study on
sports sponsorship across the top eight sports for 5-17-year olds, the
researchers identified gambling as the most common sponsor.
In Hing et als
paper “Adolescent exposure to Gambling” they contend that the intention to
gamble once reaching legal age was associated with participating in and
watching televised sports. (Hing et
al, 2014)
In a separate
study it also revealed in “Childrens implicit recall” by Bestman et al they
contend that children aged 5-12 are able to associate gambling brands with
specific sports club. (Bestman et
al, 2015)
Hing et al’s
‘Sports bettors responses to sports embedded gambling promotions: Implications
for compulsive consumption’ asked eleven questions regarding gambling promotion
techniques (one of which regarding gambling sponsors on team jersey’s) and
shockingly it was the group with the highest risk of gambling disorder that
approved of the adverts the most and the low risk of gambling disorder group
always had the least approval. (Hing
et al., 2015)
In the United
Kingdom, little is still known about the impact that gambling advertising has
on young people and problem gamblers.
All these papers
compiled in Australia point to a public health crisis where gambling
advertising in sport is leading to normalisation of the practice, even before
young people reach the legal age.
Simon Stevens
the NHS England chief executive states, “there is an increasing link between
problem gambling and stress, depression and other mental health illnesses.
Doctors report that two thirds of problem gamblers get worse without help, and
the NHS does offer specialist treatment.”
Stevens stated
that NHS England plans to work in tandem with the Premier League “on how we
persuade these foreign gambling companies to do the right thing.” Gamble aware
wants all “clubs, leagues and broadcasters who profit from gambling work to
help find treatment for this hidden addiction.”
Tom Watson,
deputy leader for Labour and also the shadow culture and sport secretary said
“Britain is suffering from a hidden epidemic of gambling addiction and it’s the
NHS and communities picking up the bill. Labour would ban sponsorship of
Premier League teams by gambling companies and introduce a compulsory
contribution to make the industry pay for gambling addiction.” (Campbell, 2018)
Only by
completing an in-depth qualitative study, using focus groups, questionnaires
and one on one interviews will we be able to understand the public health
crisis that is growing in the UK as a result of gambling sponsorship in the
Premier League.
Thank you for
joining me Henry Charles on UCFB radio, until next time, goodbye.
(Jingle)
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