England’s most capped international player of all time Peter Shilton, made an appearance on Good Morning Britain to talk about gambling’s role in football.
Conversations surrounding sports betting companies’ status within football continue to be a major talking point, with 20 English league and non-league clubs writing to DCMS to ban all gambling sponsorship on club shirts.
Shilton, who played for England for over 20 years, dealt with his own gambling addiction and admits that not much has been done since the introduction of the Gambling Act in 2005.
“I’m not against gambling as a product, what I am against is… It’s been a carte blanche (blank document) since 2005 and I think footballs been caught up in it,” states Shilton.
“Football is the number one gambling product now. It’s constant when there’s a match on, you can bet on anything that’s going on in the game. I think football has taken the easy money.”
40% of all Premier League clubs have a gambling sponsorship displayed on their team shirt. However, this has decreased from year-to-year as more calls are being made for a significant review of the 2005 Gambling Act.