Carlton defender Jacob Weitering wants regulations around sports gambling promotion
Carlton defender Jacob Weitering has a new ambassadorial role for an initiative aiming to tackle problems around gambling in sport. Here is why.
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Carlton footballer Jacob Weitering would like to see a more “regulated environment” when it comes to the prevalence of gambling advertising and sponsorship across the AFL.
Weitering has partnered as an ambassador with ‘The Real Stakes’, a new program launched by the Victorian Amateur Football Association, Adelaide Footy League, and Perth Football League.
The program aims to challenge the normalisation of online sports gambling in Australia and provide crucial support to those most at risk of harm.
“For me personally as a spectator taking the footballer Jacob Weitering out of it, you’re watching sport … just about every second ad is gambling related, bets, head-to-head, all the rest of it,” Weitering said.
“It’s pretty prevalent and that to an extent has to be regulated, you’ve seen in other codes and other countries that it is somewhat more regulated.
“The main objectives for now are raising awareness, making sure people do know what the impacts are and starting that conversation with higher ups.”
The Real Stakes program will deliver 15 in-person workshops and nine webinars across metropolitan Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, and a dedicated themed round in May will promote awareness of online sports gambling-related harm across all three leagues.
Two-time Carlton best and fairest winner Weitering noted that football was meant to bring people together.
“If you’ve got people at all levels training, coming off the track, looking at their phones, looking at their multis getting up, making sure their horse is running well whatever it might be, is that a healthy environment?” Weitering said.
“There’s certainly a conversation to be had there, certainly it’s got its place to an extent within our society but it should be monitored and making sure people are doing it in the most responsible way.
“It’s a touchy subject somewhat with some backing from sponsorship sides of things and the AFL itself, and some AFL clubs, being pretty prominent in that space … I would assume Carlton in their own history has had dealing with gambling in some capacity in relation to sponsorship.
“You can’t say you’re against it, but at the same time, is the AFL, the VFL, the VAFA — which it is doing with The Real Stakes program — are they raising enough awareness for those conversations?”
Weitering’s Blues will face a significant test against Hawthorn at the MCG on Thursday night as the club aims to bounce back from a shock round one loss to the rebuilding Richmond.
“It’s one week in 24, we’re fortunate that we get to wake up and go again but those were the conversations we had on the night, tough loss, acknowledged that Richmond played well, certainly in the way they approached that second half, but for us we’ve just gotta get back on the horse,” Weitering said of the 13-point round one defeat.
“We went to work in the review, we did some great things in the first half, we were up by seven goals, the defence was working really well, the offence was complementing that, again you can’t take too much credit away from how Richmond played.
“You can delve deep into it, but it is one game in 24 and for us there’s a multitude of things that we can certainly be better at, I won’t go too far into it.
“It’s a big task against an in-form side in Hawthorn and it’s a challenge we’ll certainly take up, the leaders have got to lead from the front.”
Weitering said the players and coach Michael Voss still had “full confidence” that the group had what it takes to contend in finals.
“It was just 12 days before that we put GWS to the sword, I know you can’t take too much from practice matches but things were rolling pretty well there,” Weitering said.
“We’ll review, move on and get a job done against Hawthorn.”
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