Kicking the Habit
Funded by a Wellcome Trust Discovery Award, this project examines how gambling sponsorship in professional sport has shaped health harms from the mid-1960s to the present.
While tobacco sponsorship has been banned, gambling companies remain highly visible in football, rugby, cricket, Formula One, and tennis, exposing fans-including vulnerable groups-to intensive marketing. Research shows such sponsorship is not benign: gambling promotions directly drive risky behaviours, with nine in ten people experiencing gambling problems reporting that marketing triggers unplanned betting.
By situating gambling alongside tobacco and alcohol, the project provides the first systematic historical analysis of addictive industry sponsorship in sport.
Stimulated by the 2021-22 UK governmental gambling review, it investigates how sponsorship has entrenched harmful consumption patterns and pressures health services, and how understanding these historical precedents can inform more effective regulation and healthier futures.