A history of sports sponsorship and public health with Dr Robin Ireland
Published: 15 March 2023
Research insight, Story
University of Glasgow academic Dr Robin Ireland is questioning the nature of sports sponsorship, and calling for a more ethical approach to lessen its detrimental impact on fans - especially children and people.
Dr Ireland has been conducting research into the increase in sponsorship by gambling companies in both the Scottish and English Premier Leagues since 1992, when the EPL was launched. In 2017, he undertook research with Professor Chris Bunn that considered the increase in the presence of sponsorship by gambling companies in both the Scottish and English Premier Leagues since 1992 when the EPL was launched. This increase occurred at the same time as the Gambling Act 2005, which liberalised the rules concerning the marketing of gambling.
The imminent publication of the UK Government’s White Paper on gambling which may introduce a voluntary ban on football clubs carrying a gambling brand on the front of their shirts, means this research is very much of relevance right now.
These themes are further explored in Dr Ireland’s new book, ‘Sport, Sponsorship and Public Health’ (Routledge), which is out this March. Drawing on research from sport studies, marketing and public health, it presents a fascinating history of advertising and marketing in global sport. Dr Ireland explores the importance of tobacco in the development of sport sponsorship, and key aspects of the contemporary relationship between sport and corporate sponsors, including mega-events, digital technologies and brand engagement.
The book also offers an in-depth case study of sponsorship in the English Premier League - one of the world’s most successful sporting properties - before considering how sport might be better regulated, now and in the future, to better protect the interests of fans and other stakeholders from a health perspective.
Famous sports people who refused to be branded are profiled, from US baseball player Honus Wager (1909) and Uruguay’s Obdulio Varela, who refused to wear a brand on his football shirt in the 1950s, to modern day footballers like France’s Kylian Mbappé and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Dr Ireland is also interested in young people’s exposure to gambling, junk food and alcohol marketing in sport - which is currently hitting the headlines. Youth advocacy agency BiteBack2030 are set to release a digital ethnography study around Gen Z’s exposure to junk food marketing in sport, which Dr Ireland contributed to.
First published: 15 March 2023