1. Risks to clubs if they are not committed to ensuring their players, staff members and fans receive safer gambling education The survey explored the following 11 areas:
The risks were divided into the following categories: human, performance, commercial and reputational/brand operational. The main theme emerging was the ‘knock-on effect’ with participants highlighting how the lack of education on safer gambling starts with a human risk, affecting an individual’s mental health and then it has a knock-on effect on performance. As Participant 5 stated: ‘The risks in these areas are all interlinked and clearly there can be a knock-on effect in all of them if any issues arise in terms of an individual experiencing problems with their gambling, including breaching the rules of the sport or committing a criminal offence in relation to betting.’ (Participant 5).
The ‘knock-on effect’ does not only relate to performance, but participants seem to feel that the knock-on effect also impacts individuals on an interpersonal level as expressed by Participant 4 ‘the collateral damage goes a lot further than club and player - the rippling effect from the gambling effect also touches family, friends, teammates etc’ , while Participant 1 noted ‘relationships can be damaged.’ In addition to the above, it is important to note the risk of a negative or damaging effect that gambling could have like ‘mental health can be adversely affected’ (Participant 1), while it can also lead to reputational damage to the brand and financial loss: ‘if integrity of the game is compromised or player suspensions are frequent this will naturally cause the brand to have a poor reputation across the board- resulting in fines, loss of game day attendance, loss of sponsors, etc.’ (Participant 7).
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