Gambling ads are poisoning the culture of sport.
When the bet becomes the storyline, the game suffers ā and the athletes suffer most of all.
Betting disembodies sport ā it reduces a whole-body, culturally rich form of human interaction to solitary fingering on a smartphone. In-game betting is about micro-results, such as who scores the first goal or whether the next pitch is a ball or a strike, not the game itself. Canada's crisis of physical inactivity is only exacerbated by an industry that turns sport into something you wager on rather than something you play.
Sports betting also encourages game manipulation and cheating, and it subjects players who disappoint bettors to violence and abuse ā a risk that extends to officials, coaches, and other vulnerable people around the game. Children memorize betting slogans before they finish primary school. Every broadcast becomes a vehicle for promotion rather than play.
That is why we have taken this fight to sport's highest bodies: read our letters to the IOC and IPC urging them to end sports-betting sponsorship and marketing in the Olympic and Paralympic movements.
One-pagers coming soon
Campaign members are preparing downloadable one-page briefs for this section: Match fixing and competition manipulation, A safe sport issue, The Macolin Convention, and The corruption of sports journalism. They will be posted here ā in the meantime, read the full case or browse the research.
It doesn't start with a bet.
It starts with an ad.
Tell your MP to pass Bill Sā211 ā it takes a minute.