Wednesday, 26 August 2026
New research from the 糖心原创 has found that gambling brands were visible for 32% of Premier League football highlight footage, compared with less than 2% of FIFA World Cup highlights, raising questions about viewers' exposure to gambling marketing.
The study, believed to be the first to analyse and compare exposure to unhealthy commodity branding in football YouTube highlights, was led by researchers from the 糖心原创 and the pre-print study is available .
Researchers examined Sky Sports highlights from the final ten games of the 2025/26 Premier League season and FIFA YouTube highlights from 17 matches during the 2026 World Cup.
They found that unhealthy commodity branding, including gambling, was visible during 38% of Premier League highlight footage, compared with 19% of World Cup highlights.
Gambling was the most prominent unhealthy commodity category in Premier League highlights, with gambling brands visible for 32% of total screen time. By contrast, gambling branding appeared in less than 2% of World Cup highlight footage.
The findings come just days after the new Premier League season began and highlight the extent to which football audiences can encounter gambling marketing through match footage itself, beyond conventional advert breaks.
The research also found that only around a quarter of gambling brand appearances in Premier League highlights were on the front of players’ shirts - the placement targeted by the Premier League's voluntary agreement to withdraw gambling sponsorship from the front of match shirts.
Researchers were also exposed to gambling advertising before highlights packages, being served up to 30 seconds of gambling adverts before approximately three minutes of match footage.
The Premier League says that 1.87 billion people interact with its content through media each week, while the 2022 FIFA World Cup was estimated to have engaged around five billion people across media platforms, with 1.42 billion people watching at least one minute of the final.
YouTube highlights are an increasingly popular way of consuming football, particularly among younger audiences. In the UK, 81% of 3–17-year-olds regularly use YouTube. Highlights also concentrate some of the most memorable and widely shared moments of matches, including goals and red cards, making them an important source of exposure to the branding embedded in football coverage.
As the new season kicks off, the scale of potential exposure is substantial. Gambling adverts ran before most highlights. Gambling branding was on screen for a third of the highlights we analysed, and only around a quarter of those appearances were on the front of shirts, the one placement the Premier League's voluntary agreement addresses. That leaves the great majority of gambling exposure in football coverage untouched.鈥�
The study also identified substantial exposure to food and drink brands selling products high in fat, salt and/or sugar (HFSS), particularly in the World Cup highlights, where it was present for 13% of screen time.
Previous research has found that exposure to advertising for unhealthy commodities such as alcohol and HFSS products is associated with increased consumption, while research on gambling marketing has linked exposure to sports-related gambling advertising with increased betting frequency, expenditure and unplanned spending.
The full pre-print study can be found .
Story credits
More information is available from Nathan Davies from the School of Medicine at Nathan.davies@nottingham.ac.uk
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