FIFA is part of footballs gambling problem but it runs deeper than just FUT – PCGamesN

Society has a gambling problem.Football has a gambling problem.FIFA has a gambling problem.

The UK, where FIFA and football are overwhelmingly popular, is a particular hotbed for problem gambling:14.4 billionwas spent on gambling last year alone, and11% of 11-16-year-olds admitted to gamblingin the seven days before being asked. (Gambling is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 in the UK.) Problem gamblers, of which there areover 400,000in the UK, are overeight times more likelyto take their own life.

Gamblings ties to sport are deep, cultural, generational, and not easily unwound. Awhistle-to-whistle banwas introduced on gambling TV adverts at the start of this football season (August 2019), outlawing such ads in the 15 minutes before the start and after the end of any televised sporting occasion (except horse racing, as the entire industry, somewhat alarmingly, recognised the sport was untenable without gambling money).

Watch a regular league match on telly and youll still be confronted with any number of gambling references, ads, and backdoor messages. You can watch Dafabets Fulham vs 32Reds Derby County, for example, and see Wayne Rooney wearing the number 32 thats just a coincidence, of course. Perhaps you want to watch a match involving Stoke City, who play at the Bet365 Stadium? Of course, such ties take place in the Sky Bet Championship and are broadcast by the gambling firms sister company, Sky Sports. Clubs are therefore obliged to promote the betting firm through their respective channels as well as on the pitch.

Of the 20 Premier League clubs, ten are sponsored by gambling firms. In the Championship, its 17 of 24. The FA, the guardians of football,sold FA Cup streaming rights to Bet365. Almost every single football podcast is sponsored by betting companies, which also set up stalls at matches and pay footballers toeat piesorwearparticularpantsfor publicity. Football is intertwined with gambling,and EA Sports is committed to faithfully recreating real-life football in FIFA. See the problem?

Gambling's ties to sport are deep, cultural, generational, and not easily unwound

Ultimate Teams loot boxes are a problem, too, of course: the constant flow of new reward mechanics like SBCs, season objectives, promo cards, and limited-time deals make it hard to pull yourself away. Combine that with the multiple currencies obfuscating the real amount youve gambled, packs extremely low success chances, and the ease with which anyone can hand over their money or that of their parents and FUT becomes a dangerously addictive gateway to gambling for young people. Lets not forgetFIFA 20is rated 3+ (in the UK; E for Everyone in the US).

But the mode is only one piece of the puzzle. Even if youve never touched Ultimate Team, youre still confronted with gambling reminders left, right, and centre through the various real-life sponsorship deals FIFA merely recreates. If your team doesnt have a betting firm as a primary sponsor, its likely your career mode or kick off opponent of the week will. PES 2020 is not immune to this either, of course, but this is one area where FIFAs greater abilityto replicate real-world football, and its gambling-backed licences, becomes a drawback when compared to Konamis challenger.

The ubiquity of gambling messages throughoutEAs game facilitates a normalisation of gambling for anyone playing FIFA. Combine it with the rise in betting apps and the ease with which we can now bet, and you have a potent recipe. Waiting for your next match to load? Why not have a flutter the logo is right there in front of you, so youll never forget which apps to download.

EA does take some steps to shield FIFA players from footballs deal with the devil. The aforementioned Bet365 Stadium, for example, is named the Stoke City Stadium in-game and the Sky Bet EFL is referred to simply as the EFL. However, while clubs with gambling sponsors are not permitted to produce real-life childrens kits with those sponsors involved, FIFA, a game played by children around the world, does not follow suit. So while real-life clubs either forego printing a sponsor logo on kids shirts or substitute in that of their charity arm, for example, EA makes those gambling logos ubiquitous within FIFA. This, again, may be a licensing obligation: any betting firm thats forked out hundreds of millions of pounds to sponsor a Premier League club likely wants the exposure a big game like FIFA will bring making the game part of the wider problem. EA did not respond to a request for comment.

The Gambling Commission, meanwhile, told PCGamesN: We understand concerns that gambling advertising and marketing, including advertising and sponsorship of football, could lead to gambling harms for children and other vulnerable people but the evidence is not yet clear. We are working with the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling and Gamble Aware to gather new evidence to explore these issues further.

A spokesperson continued: We are also pushing the industry to work together to make better use of advertising technology to minimise the risk of exposure of gambling advertising content to children, young people and vulnerable adults online.

The UK government is aware of the problem: itsreportedlylooking to legislate against gambling companies sponsoring football teams shirts. But any such process will be drawn-out and will likely face considerable opposition from the companies who benefit from their increased brand awareness and revenue boost every time theres a big match involving one of their partners. In the meantime, football and videogame fans will continue to be exposed to bet now messaging everywhere they look, normalising a habit which can be hugely damaging.

EA should instead take a proactive approach and extend its scrubbing out of stadium and competition sponsorships to shirts as well as listening to the valid concerns around Ultimate Team. The small loss of realism will be worth it for those struggling with gambling addiction around the world and for the young people whose hobbies are bound so tightly to such a potentially harmful industry.

Between FUTs pack economy and the ubiquity of gambling references across the entire game, FIFA is complicit in making football a perfect training ground for young gamblers. Its time EA, its videogame, and the beautiful game of football itself woke up.

If youre concerned that you or someone youre close to may be addicted to gambling, help is available in the UK from Gamblers Anonymous or GamCare, among others; in the US, you can get help from the National Council on Problem Gambling.

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FIFA is part of footballs gambling problem but it runs deeper than just FUT - PCGamesN