Premier League football returns this week. As a lifelong Southampton fan, for me and thousands of others, it also brings the excitement of seeing our beloved Saints return to the top tier of English football. 

However, that excitement has been tarnished by the club’s choice of shirt sponsor for the men’s team, the cryptocurrency casino company Rollbit. The .com version of Rollbit is banned in many EU countries, the USA, Australia and even in the UK. However, UK users can register and play online using a co.uk version. This is made possible through a deal with Gibraltar based company, Grace Media. 

I have previously written of my concerns regarding the level of gambling advertising in sport and the impact which gambling addiction can have on mental health, as well as its links to suicide. 

Geoff Cooper (Image: Contributed)

The gambling industry still enjoys far less regulation than that of the alcohol or tobacco industries. While I have nothing against gambling itself, I am after all a liberal and believe in freedom of choice, the association of gambling with sport and incessant advertising aimed at sports fans, particularly football fans, significantly increases the risk to those gamblers who go on to develop problem gambling behaviours.

Rollbit is not the first gambling company to be a shirt sponsor. In August 2020, the club announced a hastily put together deal with betting company Sportsbet.io, following the disastrous collapse of their sponsorship deal with Chinese based LD Sports. 

However, Rollbit is not just a normal online casino. It is an online casino and trading platform with its own cryptocurrency and ‘crypto futures’ feature which allows players to leverage trade cryptocurrency. A very high risk and addictive feature, especially given the volatility of the crypto market and the fact that most of us are not expert leverage traders. 

To someone with problem gambling behaviours, or those at risk of developing them, this level of temptation is effectively the equivalent to a free wine tasting event at an AA meeting. You simply would not do it. Which is why I am so disappointed with those in charge at the club, for agreeing this deal. 

The Premier League will ban shirt sponsorship by gambling companies at the start of the 2026/27 season, that is in two years time. However, it seems that Southampton F.C., along with nine other Premier League clubs, is taking full advantage of the huge sponsorship money currently on offer and putting pound signs ahead of their own moral compass and the wellbeing of their fans. 

Geoff Cooper,
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for Romsey and Southampton North