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| Photo: Getty Images |
There
is something of a paradox in Scottish football these days. In fact, not just
Scottish football but football in general.
There are numerous clubs in the UK whose shirts are emblazoned by the name of a betting company of some kind of another. In the cinch Premiership, Celtic and Rangers currently promote betting companies on their shirts and, in Scotland, there are seemingly no plans to stop this despite the Premier League in England banning the names of gambling companies on the front of team shirts from season 2026/27.
There are some wellbeing organisations and charities who have been concerned for some time by the affects of gambling addiction on the young (and not so young) and the fact that it is now easier than ever before to place a bet on just about anything you can think on.
The internet has seen a huge increase in online betting through various apps. Most of the betting companies who run these apps not only make it far easier than it should be to gamble on your smart phone but actively encourage you to do so by bombarding you with email messages on a daily basis. It makes for a reasonable argument to suggest that promoting these companies on football shirts encourages impressionable young adults to gamble.
Some football clubs have started to move away from taking the ‘gold’ on offer from said betting companies. This is to their credit, and it seems any form of gambling is now persona non grata at an increasing number of football clubs around the country. It doesn’t seem that long ago that you could use betting facilities at Tynecastle and Easter Road, for example. The hut in the Wheatfield Stand at Tynecastle which was a mini betting shop has been closed for some time now, but it used to be a hive of activity on match days.
And it’s not just the betting shop which has disappeared from Tynie. For years, I was accustomed to parting with my hard-earned cash to the auld fella at the turnstile (sound familiar, Citizens?) before having my ears subjected to ‘get yer half-time draw tickets!’ being bellowed from a person or persons armed with a fifty-fifty draw ticket. For a mere pound you had the chance of winning an untold fortune (well, enough to get a few rounds in at The Diggers pub after the game)
I recall visiting Firs Park, home of East Stirlingshire a few years ago, at a time when the Shire were still in the Scottish Football League albeit perennial strugglers in the bottom division. I was so impressed by a fella doing his fifty-fifty half-time draw ticket sales pitch – ‘this could change your life forever’ – that I parted with a pound and stuffed my part of the ticket in my pocket. It was only upon leaving the ground at the end of the game that I saw the winning number nailed to a hut by the exit gate. It was my number. I duly collected £125 and felt a tad guilty that I was taking money from a club for which every penny was precious. Although not guilty enough to give them it back…
Along the road from Firs Park, was Brockville Park, former home of Falkirk FC. I remember my father taking me there in the late 1960s/early 1970s and buying a ‘goalden goal’ ticket (do you see what they did there?) For the price of a shilling (for those under the age of 50 look it up on Google) you got a perforated piece of paper which, upon opening, contained any time between 0 minutes and 90 minutes. The idea was if your ticket had the time of the first goal of the game you won a cash prize. I still recall my father throwing away one of his tickets in disgust after it revealed ‘0 mins, 14 seconds’…In fact, the terracing at Brockville Park always seemed to be festooned with discarded ‘goalden’ goal tickets.
Nowadays, with the internet meaning instant access to the world on one’s smartphone – and the world of online gambling – there isn’t quite the same anticipation with buying a half-time draw ticket or the much missed ‘goalden’ goal ticket.
I like a bet as much as the next person but I do appreciate the dangers of addiction which can lead to serious consequences. But I do ponder if the fact that Celtic and Rangers have a gambling company as their shirt sponsors will really influence wee Johnny sitting at either Celtic Park or Ibrox to bet his life away at an online bookmaker.
In life, people really have to take responsibility for their own actions. But do they? Don’t bet on it…
Mike Smith
Twitter
@Mike1874
