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How ex-footballers are promoting gambling, even among children

Sports specialists including Alan Shearer and Robbie Savage have been urged to take a ‘hard look’ at themselves for promoting gambling firms.

Ex-sports stars working for the Corporation are followed by millions, including children, on their social media accounts which is used for advertising bookmakers.

While campaigners argue their role as ambassadors for gaming firms helped normalise betting for children, one in 10 teens aged 11 to 16 follow a bookmaker on social media with about 25,000 problem gamblers in that age group.

On Twitter, Savage regularly posts tips for William Hill to his 1.76million followers, while former England captain Shearer, who has 587,000 followers, is an ambassador for Coral and re-tweets the bookmaker’s posts in which he has been interviewed by the firm’s publicist.

His fellow Match of the Day specialist, ex-Tottenham Hotspur player, Jermaine Jenas, is an ambassador for Unibet, and re-tweet similar posts.

The specialists also work with firms that have deals with teams they could cover. Unibet sponsors Aston Villa, William Hill is a partner for Everton and Coral is a partner for Norwich City.

Earlier, ex-England forward, Gary Lineker warned about ‘dangerous’ level of betting advertising and sponsorship in sport.

It comes after the Mail revealed that all 26 live football matches screened over Christmas had at least five gambling adverts before the watershed.

“All you ever see is commercials for gambling and apps, it is really dangerous and I think we need to do something about both of them, alcohol and gambling.

“Gambling is just too easy to do now and as a parent I worry about it, all those ads bombarding you with in-play betting,” Lineker said.

Marc Etches, of GambleAware, said: “As important role models for young people, celebrities and sports professionals that promote gambling on social media, with some acting as tipsters, need to step up and accept the shared responsibility we all have to help protect young people from the risks of gambling. They need to be careful not to contribute to the normalisation of gambling for children on social media.”

Problem gamblers (addicted gamblers) cost taxpayers up to £1.2billion a year through welfare, housing and criminal justice costs they generate, GambleAware found in December 2016.

Dr. Henrietta Bowden-Jones, of the National Problem Gambling Clinic, said: “We should be preventing the young from developing problem gambling issues by making sure exposure to gambling products is limited to adults.

“I would urge all sports personalities with a young fanbase to take a hard look at whether they could be perceived as promoting gambling. Sport must not, under any circumstance, become synonymous with gambling in Britain’s young sporting fans.”

However, Clive Hawkswood, from the Remote Gambling Association, representing the online gambling industry, said the number of children gambling was at an all-time low and brand ambassadors’ marketing on social media was covered by the Advertising Standards Authority.

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