Latest news with #BettingAndGamingCouncil
BBC News
9 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Gambling and social media abuse of women in sport - what is going on?
When tennis player Katie Boulter revealed to the BBC the shocking scale of social media abuse she receives on social media, she emphasised that many angry messages feature references to to Signify, which has been working with tennis authorities on detecting abuse through an artificial intelligence-led detection system called Threat Matrix, a significant proportion of abuse sent to tennis players stems from gamblers who have lost the year, a category they call 'angry gamblers' sent 40% of all detected abuse, with messages clearly related to betting activity because of the timing or content of the for a response, a Betting and Gaming Council spokesperson said its members "do not tolerate abuse on social media, which has no place in betting or sport".It added: "It is vital social media companies take swift action against users, and remove offensive content."BBC Sport has looked at what exactly is going on with the relationship between gambling, tennis, women in sport and online abuse. What do we know about gambling in tennis? Tennis tournaments are played all around the world throughout most of the year, making it one of the most popular sports for regular gamblers to bet on.A source at one of the world's largest multi-platform gambling operators told the BBC that more than £100m is bet on tennis matches worldwide each spread of bets is roughly even across men's and women's tennis, tipped slightly higher in favour of the men's game because more matches take place on its Challenger tour, according to this the United Kingdom, 13% of all sports betters gambled on tennis in 2023, meaning the sport ranked fifth behind horse racing, football, golf and boxing, according to a YouGov survey, 16% of tennis gamblers spend over £200 per month on bets, according to the data, and 34% of them use websites which offer loyalty schemes for regular customers. That means some UK tennis gamblers spend big and spend regularly, meaning the stakes are higher when they perhaps provides an indication as to why the abuse Boulter and other players suffer is so often focused around work with around 30 players on moderating their private messages, and the proportion of abuse that comes from 'angry gamblers' is 77%. How does tennis handle gambling sponsorships? As is the case with other sports, the relationship between tennis and gambling has been a source of controversy for many over potential match-fixing and ethics have historically led to a reluctance to form official betting sponsorships have become highly lucrative as gambling has moved online. In an era where high-profile players have campaigned for more prize money and a greater share of sponsor revenue, tennis has begun to demonstrate an increased willingness to work with gambling 2023, 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic said players should be given a higher proportion of the revenue generated from gambling sponsorships in tennis."Personally, I probably would not get a betting sponsor on my sleeve but I know that probably 95+% of the players would do that," Djokovic said. "I would support that, but if that's not allowed then what we would deserve to have is 50% of the share that the tournament gets from these sponsorship deals with betting companies." In February, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced an extension of a deal with Stake - the Curacao-based gambling company which also sponsors sports teams including the Sauber Formula 1 team, and Everton - making it the official betting partner of the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King was subsequently found to have broken UK Gambling Commission rules by using pornographic content to promote gambling to young people, and abandoned its licence to operate in the ITF deal remains in place, and the BBC has contacted the governing body for Madrid Open, the Miami Open and Swedish Open are now sponsored by South Africa-based 2023, the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) signed a multi-year agreement with online gaming company FanDuel Group, applying to the Tour in North, South and Central WTA also sells its data to the company Stats Perform and the ATP to Sportradar, for them to distribute to licenced betting decision to sell rights in this way was to ensure betting was regulated, replacing the unregulated world of 'courtsiders'. What about women and gambling? Historically, men have represented the majority of gamblers in the UK, but data shows that the proportion of women is Gambling Commission (UKGC) data, external from 2022 found that 42% of women had gambled in the previous four weeks, and that those aged 35 to 54 were most likely to figures also include non-sports forms of gambling like casinos, slot machines and online bingo, but women are targeted by sports betting platforms too.A 2024 survey conducted by Stats Perform found that 44% of betting operators said that they want to grow their number of female the USA, meanwhile, investment bank Morgan Stanley estimates that 32% of sports betters are now the gambling operator which runs Paddy Power, said that 24% of all bets placed through its FanDuel brand during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris were on women's events, with 60% of football bets placed on women's matches and 79% of gymnastics bets on women's events. How much is the UK gambling industry worth? According to the UKGC's latest figures, gambling firms earned revenue of £15.6bn between April 2023 and March 2024, an increase of £0.5bn on the previous means the UK gambling industry is worth more than double the UK music industry (valued at £7.6bn according to UK Music) and video games industry (valued at £7bn according to Equity, the performing arts and entertainment trade union).According to estimates, UK gambling companies spent more than £1.5bn on marketing in recent years, with a large portion of that going to television adverts. This rises to closer to £2bn when sponsorships are factored Office for Health Improvement and Disparities estimates that there are between 117 and 496 gambling-related suicides, external every year in England. Have any new gambling regulations come into effect? There has been a tightening of regulations in recent years in relation to gambling's marketing and sponsorship in relation to sport. They include:The whistle-to-whistle ban on gambling advertisements in football, which was implemented in 2019, prohibiting pre-watershed gambling advertising on TV from five minutes before kick-off until five minutes after full-timeA 2022 update to a rule on appealing to children – prior to the change, gambling adverts could not have "particular" appeal to children, whereas now they cannot have "strong" appeal to childrenLate last year the government announced new plans, including a levy to generate £100m for the research, prevention and treatment of gambling harms, and online slot stake limits of £5 for over 25s and £2 for young adults aged 18 to May the Health and Social Care Committee set out further measures they want the UK government to take in order to better protect people from the possible harms from measures requested include strengthening rules on advertising, taking a risk-based approach to regulation, and to develop a public information campaign addressing the risk of gambling-related suicides.
The Sun
08-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Two-thirds of gamblers would turn to black market betting sites if the Government increased tax rate on horses
TWO thirds of punters say a tax increase on betting such as horse racing will push people to the gambling black market, a shock survey finds. A major change to the way betting and gaming is taxed online is being consulted on by Ministers triggering fears a flutter on racing and football will be more expensive. Sporting betting and online gaming are currently taxed at differing rates but the sector is warning against introducing a single new tax at a higher rate. The survey from the Betting and Gaming Council found that 65 per cent of regular punters would head to unregulated sites where no tax is paid. It comes after a recent study found 1.5 million Brits wager more than £4 billion on the betting black market every year hitting the fragile horse racing industry. The Treasury insist plans are about cutting back on bureaucracy rather than hiking or lowering tax rates. Grainne Hurst, the boss of the Betting and Gaming Council, said: 'This shocking statistic proves what's at stake if the Government forces through a self-defeating tax hike on ordinary punters. 'It's clear it will not raise more tax, it simply risks forcing huge numbers of customers out of the regulated market, with its world leading standards on player safety, into the arms of the growing, illegal, unregulated and unsafe gambling black market online. 'Any tax rises would make a mockery of the Government's growth strategy and be catastrophic for horseracing, which is already facing a bleak financial outlook. 'This is a wake up call for Government, punters have been loud and clear, hit them with further taxes and they will walk away from sports like racing, straight to the black market, triggering a spiral of decline.' Currently, there is a distinction between general betting which is taxed at 15 per cent and remote gaming which has grown hugely in recent years which is taxed at 21 per cent. Ministers are looking at bringing in a new single remote gambling tax with industry figures fearing it could be at the higher rate. A Treasury spokesperson said: 'We are consulting on bringing the treatment of online betting in line with other forms of online gambling to cut down bureaucracy - it is not about increasing or decreasing rates. 'During this consultation we welcome views from all stakeholders including businesses, trade bodies, the third sector and individuals.' 1
