Swansea City launches responsible gambling pledge to supporters
EFL club targets minors, supporters and wider community with marketing declaration
Swansea City has launched a new responsible gambling pledge that will heavily restrict the use of gambling-related branding by the club.
In the pledge, released alongside a new initiative to increase supporter engagement within the decision-making process of the club, Swansea said all gambling related sponsorships should be “conducted in a socially responsible way,”.
The pledge adds: “[A gambling sponsorship] should aim to balance promotional opportunities with measures that help preserve the welfare of those playing or watching and who could be at risk of becoming addicted to gambling or be addicted to gambling already,”.
As part of this commitment, the club said they will be mindful of responsible gambling when entering into new commercial partnerships and only do so with UK-licensed operators. Swansea have also pledged to only partner with firms who have signed up with FootballData Co.
The club said it would seek to avoid the use of imagery featuring players under the age of 18 wearing kit featuring branding from betting and gaming companies in club communications. The club will also remove all references to gambling firms from the junior section of its website.
As well as committing to providing better education and treatment to player affected by gambling-related harm, the club said it will ensure no gambling adverts are played on the big screens during the live game and restrict any half-time ads to promoting responsible gambling only.
The club has also said it will remove gambling branding from shirts available in child sizes and allow the purchase of adult replica shirts without betting and gaming brands are available for under18s to purchase as an alternative.
Swansea will ensure that each first team player wears a sleeve badge promoting responsible gambling during matches and remove gambling related branding from all academy and under-18 teams.
The club have also said they will where requested by the first team player in question, branding from betting and gaming companies where an individual player is under the age of 18 or has genuine religious reasons for doing so.
Finally, Swansea have said they will ensure branding from betting and gaming companies is not featured in family areas of its stadium.