David Penberthy: Enough with the AFL gambling ads. We’re sick of them

I’m no puritan but the betting advertisements during the Brownlows were so relentless it felt like being spammed. It’s no wonder the nation is in the grip of gambling addiction, writes David Penberthy.

Whatever familial happiness can be derived from gathering around the telly to watch Brownlow night was destroyed last Monday as the AFL’s best and fairest medal presentation was debased into a glorified vehicle for sports betting.

There was nothing subliminal about the messaging. It came through crystal clear. Bet early and bet often, because if you’re not betting on the Brownlow, you’re really not getting the most out of it.

The AFL has of course clunkily renamed its best and fairest medal the “fairest and best” medal to give primary emphasis on the fairness aspect of the award.

If you missed it between all the betting ads, Nat Fyfe of the Fremantle Dockers, with partner Eleanor Brayshaw, took home his second Brownlow Medal. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith

This is the kind of feel-good, progressive stuff the AFL prides itself on. Be it lighting up AFL House in the rainbow colours to back the marriage equality plebiscite, or devoting rounds to multiculturalism or campaigning for a referendum to recognise indigenous heritage in our Constitution, the AFL is not so much shy as garrulous when it comes to crusading on social issues.

I have to say, I support all of those social issues, too. But the AFL has little credibility on telling anyone how to think or behave, when it is not just silent on the huge and growing issue of problem gambling, but actually licking its lips at the chance to formalise and promote the link between enjoying sport and betting on sport.

MORE FROM DAVID PENBERTHY: Why we all need a little help from our friends

Posturing on social issues brings no cost for the AFL, unless that social issue happens to be gambling.

I don’t say this as some anti-gambling, clean-living puritan. I had a great night at the greyhounds with some mates on Thursday, setting aside fifty bucks for a few bets, and had twenty bucks (earlier this year) on Adelaide Crows player Brad Crouch in the Brownlow, back when the season was tracking deceptively well.

We are talking here about the relentless extent and absurd nature of the promotions. What happened during the Channel 7 broadcast last Monday was a disgrace, which reminded me of that summer of cricket a few years back which invited tougher regulation after all sorts of exotic bets were being promoted every other ball.

The number and nature of the betting ads last Monday night will surely invite fresh attention from our law-makers.

I actually lost count of how many gambling ads were run. In a few breaks, the ads ran back-to-back, many of them featuring the annoyingly pushy Nathan Brown constantly badgering the listeners with fluctuating real-time odds as the count continued.

Steven Hocking and Gillon McLachlan during the 2019 Brownlow Medal Count. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

At one point he was even plugging some moronic bet where you could punt on the likelihood of Dustin Martin and one other player both polling the maximum three votes in the same round.

Bets like these are in a psychological way the same as those spam emails you get telling you that you’ve won a lottery in Europe or inherited money in Africa.

They’re predicated on a tiny percentage of people being foolish enough (or in the case of gambling, drunk enough) to make the snap-second decision to have a lash.

I am not sure how the AFL recognises its commitment to its junior arm Auskick and its determination to grow the game with young people, with turning its marquee medal night into an extended advertisement for betting agencies.

MORE FROM DAVID PENBERTHY: AFL should be about sport. Not social engineering

It seems odd it can talk about the great power of Aussie Rules to lift people out of poverty and bad lifestyle habits, when it has a formal relationship with its own betting partner and aggressively uses every technological platform to promote the link between gambling and the game.

In the past few weeks a national advertising campaign has been launched calling for a complete ban on alcohol advertising and sponsorships in sport.

My teenage kids and I have probably spent around six hours a week on average over the past 10 years watching sport together, footy in winter and cricket in summer, meaning they would have seen thousands of ads for everything from Victoria Bitter to Bundy and Jim Beam and the various bigger wineries that advertise during the cricket.

I am totally unconvinced there is any causal link between the predisposition of young people toward drinking and these easily ignored adverts. Indeed in our household, if you take the parents out of the equation, there doesn’t appear to be any problem whatsoever with the rate of alcohol consumption at our joint. My kids are still totally not interested in it.

We’ve reached peak pushy Nathan Brown. Please, no more. Picture: News Corp

When it comes to gambling, though, especially for young men, their knowledge of odds on teams and individuals has become inextricably linked to their assessment of performance.

Equally, because so many kids love not just AFL and/or NRL, but also EPL in Britain and the NBA in the US, they have developed a burning interest in the question of multis.

These are bets where you can load up on Richmond for the flag, Patty Cripps for the Brownlow, Tottenham to beat Arsenal and the Lakers to beat the Jazz, and marvel at the fact your $10 bet will land you a return of $1783 (and doesn’t that just happen all the time, every time?)

MORE FROM DAVID PENBERTHY: Not even barracking is safe from tut-tutting wowsers

These youngsters are the next generation of problem gamblers, and the next generation of the AFL’s business model.

It gave them both barrels during last Monday’s broadcast. It was a level of recklessness that undermines the AFL’s credibility as a force for social good, especially in a year when one of its young stars, Collingwood’s Jaidyn Stephenson, was heavily penalised for betting in breach of AFL rules.

I mean, what was Stephenson thinking? Wherever would he have got the idea that gambling is a good thing?

@penbo

Originally published as David Penberthy: Enough with the AFL gambling ads. We’re sick of them