Irish sports moves to curtail sponsorship

The Gaelic Athletic Association annual conference in Dublin over the weekend took a strong anti-sponsorship position when its 270 delegates voted almost overwhelmingly to do away with these types of agreements with gambling companies, and ban the display of betting company branding on teams strips and the clothing of officials.

93 percent of delegates supported the radical motion, which was introduced despite the fact that the GAA has no international team sponsorships ongoing at present, although there have been some internal deals by Irish betting firms like BoyleSports.

The motivation behind the motion is apparently concern regarding the moral and societal implications of too close an association with gambling and betting, and a perceived desire to protect sports from collusion and corruption.

The bans complement GAA regulations that already forbid betting by players and officials on games in which they are involved.

Supporting the motion, the GAA claimed that half the 77 player infringement cases that had come before its counselling services in 2017 had involved betting or related issues

GAA banning vote follows moves by the English Football Association last year to ban sponsorship agreements with gambling companies (see previous  reports).

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