Football legend takes flak for promoting online gambling

Former England and Queens Park Rangers football star Rio Ferdinand (36) discovered this week that using social networking as a marketing tool is not without risk when he used Twitter to publicise an online sports betting and casino website.

Ferdinand is the new frontman for an online gambling company, and used the social media network to advise his six million followers: “Play at my favourite @CasinoFloorUK tonight & have 55 free spins on me [link to website].”

UK media report that there was an unexpected negative backlash to the tweet, with significant numbers of posters suggesting that his actions as a role model were irresponsible and “money-grabbing.”

The Daily Mirror picked up on the reaction and took its usual anti-gambling line, claiming that the website in question offered a number of games that, through the inclusion in the themes of fairy tales and cartoons, may be attractive to minors….and that Ferdinand ( a parent himself) had not added the optional “adult content” alert to his page since his online gambling endorsement deal began.

Ferdinand has not thus far responded to the criticism.