Josh Bruce calls out gambler threats as AFL makes millions a year from bookmakers

The AFL has been urged to spend the millions it earns from sports betting to prevent gamblers from sending death threats and abuse to players when bets go awry.

The AFL has been warned it must be accountable for death threats to players from angry punters as it hauls in tens of millions of dollars a year from betting companies.

The AFL receives a slice of every bet made on its matches and also secures $10 million a year from an official partnership with betting company Sportsbet. Players have this week revealed a torrent of frightening threats because of punters losing bets when they failed to kick a goal or have a set amount of ­possessions.

Alliance for Gambling Reform spokesman Tim Costello said the AFL’s love affair with bulging bookmaker profits had created a “dangerous social situation”.

“The AFL has to change course before there is a tragedy,” Costello said. “We have got a dangerous social situation here – and the AFL are responsible for it.”

Bulldogs forward Josh Bruce said he received more than 30 abusive messages based around gambling each weekend, while Adelaide’s Taylor Walker said his failure to kick a goal saw him subjected to offensive abuse.

Former Collingwood star Travis Cloke fears a current day player could self-harm if they were continually being subjected to online abuse and threats.

“A few people must have had me in their multi for any time goal scorer,” Walker said. “It’s getting to a stage where it’s pretty disgusting. Death threats, family threats, comments about kids, comments about the colour of your skin.”

The league’s $10 million annual windfall from Sportsbet goes into consolidated revenue, with players accessing a share of that money but none of the AFL’s revenue from poker machines.

But there are calls for the AFL to do more to educate fans or mount community-based awareness campaigns that would protect players from abuse that seriously threatens their mental health.

Former Collingwood star Travis Cloke told the Sacked podcast this year he feared a player would self-harm amid the repeated and damaging online abuse.

Costello told The Australian the league had a responsibility to its players as bored fans locked in houses because of COVID turned to sports betting as a distraction.

He said the crisis was being accelerated by the shutdown.

“It’s bored young men where the jump in online gambling has come from and it’s been a really significant jump,” he said.

“These threats have to be taken seriously because sports fans with sports betting are actually watching a different game.

“It’s now not a game of whether their side wins or not – thanks to the AFL’s social engineering it’s about whether they have a win on who kicks the first goal. Players aren’t being watched for their skills but as objects – like greyhounds – for betting. And as we know with greyhounds and horses – they get put down if they fail.”

Costello said the AFL’s decision to quietly extend its monster $10 million-a-year deal with corporate bookmaking giant Sportsbet in January proved the league had lost its right to moral leadership in the community.

“The AFL has corrupted the sport and now that the players are becoming targets this just has to stop,” he said.

“Surely the AFL can now see the consequences of their greed? I call on the AFL to renounce its sports betting partnerships, as the clubs have done with pokies.”

Herald Sun