Confer with a hockey fan and the chances are good they’ll have something to say about all of the betting-related content appearing in NHL broadcasts these days.
“It’s forced upon us every jiffy,” said Gordon Rendell, writing via email from Comfortable Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., and summing up a frustration he and other like-minded fans are feeling.
There are TV ads promoting sports betting, broadcast segments dedicated to sports betting, digital ads on arena boards promoting sports book firms — all a part of the fierce competition for the business of people that need to bet.
“It turns me off,” said Robert Suggitt, a 61-year-old Edmontonian who’s watched the sport since he was a child — and continues to, despite all of the promotion.
Veteran sports broadcaster Dave Hodge is not a fan of the gaming push either — not just for what it means for the game, but additionally what it means for those watching the on-air product.
“I feel that is skewing the telecast,” said Hodge, who also believes it’s potentially dangerous for the integrity of the sport.
A fresh market
The sharp rise in betting-related content in hockey media follows the legalization of single-event sports betting in Canada last yr. That allowed provinces to control betting inside those regions.
Ontario led the way in which, launching its regulated betting market in April. A double-digit list of firms at the moment are legally taking online bets on sporting events from Ontarians.
WATCH | Promoting a recent sports-betting market in Ontario:
Sports betting ads are popping up in all places across Ontario, leaving some experts concerned they might reach audiences outside the province and entice them to play on unregulated gambling sites.
An analogous story has unfolded in the US, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed the broader adoption of sports gambling across that country in 2018.
The Latest York Times reports that 31 U.S. states now allow people to bet on sports in-person or online. Five others are able to achieve this in future.
Victor Matheson, a professor of economics at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., said the U.S. and Canada offer gaming firms vast numbers of potential customers.
“We now have a ton of cash pouring in — each into the U.S. and into Canada, as you are opening up a huge market,” said Matheson, an authority on sports economics and gambling.
In Ontario alone, bettors registered greater than $4 billion in wagers between April and the top of June. That total topped $6 billion the next quarter.
Leveraging star power
The appeal of the Canadian market is seen within the efforts sport book firms are making to realize the eye of hockey viewers and their betting dollars.
A few of those firms have inked deals with the NHL, granting them greater visibility to fans at events and on broadcasts. FanDuel and BetMGM, as an example, inked partnership deals allowing them “to make use of official NHL branding … to appeal to fans and sports betting customers” in the U.S. and Canada.
There are also endorsement deals with high-profile players: Auston Matthews, the prolific Maple Leafs goal-scorer, has an endorsement take care of Bet99, while Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid is a brand ambassador for BetMGM.
Not all fans are impressed.
Rendell, the lifelong hockey fan from Labrador, points to a business he’s seen featuring McDavid and Wayne Gretzky. The premise sees a distracted No. 99 paying closer attention to a basketball bet than to watching the modern-day Edmonton star practice.
“So ridiculous,” said Rendell.
Social costs
The expansion of sports gambling in Canada has brought concerns concerning the harms it could cause.
White Coat Black Art26:30Sports Betting Addiction
Now that single-event sports betting is taking off in Canada, ads and incentives are encouraging people to make a wager. But a recovering gambling addict and a gambling counsellor worry it’s easier than ever to get dangerously hooked. And so they want far more done to limit promoting and to support treatment.
A few of the people watching hockey at home fear the published and media side of that industry promotion could put some viewers in danger.
“The sell is difficult, it’s there on a regular basis,” said Hodge. “You possibly can’t get away from it.”
Matthew Young, the director of research and evidence services at Greo Evidence and Insights, an organization that researches problem gambling, said sports have long had a picture of getting a helpful impact on society.
“What you’ve got through this deluge of sports promoting is a coupling of sports and betting and appreciation of sports and gambling,” said Young, who believes these promotional efforts may must be more strongly regulated.
And it is not just adults watching hockey games — young viewers shall be seeing those ads, too.
“They will grow up in an environment where they are going to be very, very aware of sports betting, aware of gambling and it’s [being] introduced to them at a really, very young age.”
More news, more content
Steve McAllister has followed the developments on the sports-betting front closely, while producing Gaming News Canada — a twice-weekly newsletter covering the industry, which launched in January 2021.
He’s seen the industry generating more news because it grows.
“[Initially] I used to be having a tough time writing 700 words every week,” said McAllister, the vice-president and editor-in-chief of Parleh Media Group, whose latest edition totalled nearly 4,000 words.
He hears what fans are saying concerning the changes in hockey broadcasts. To him, it is a puzzle broadcasters are working to unravel.
“How do you present content around sports betting that is not going to offend sports fans who aren’t eager about betting?” said McAllister, whose sports media profession has included work in communications and journalism.
“That is the dilemma and that is the challenge.”
CBC News asked the NHL about feedback from fans on this issue. The league didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
The long run
Sports betting is a big industry with a world profile. Experience from outside of North America may provide a glimpse of how it could fare here in the long term.
Matheson, the sports economics expert, said the UK has had legalized sports betting in place for many years and a few of its marquee firms — a few of that are entering the Canadian market — spend big to advertise their business.
“Roughly half of the teams within the English Premier League at once have a betting sponsor as their primary jersey sponsor,” he said.
That might speak to the type of potential investments a majority of these industry players could sooner or later make in North American sports.
The frenzy of spending could also look different in the longer term, because the market matures.
McAllister predicts economic realities will eventually inform the selections being made.
“You possibly can only spend thousands and thousands of dollars on promoting for thus long,” he said.
