ICC lifts ban on equipment and attire gambling sponsorship
Gambling sponsorship will now be permitted on playing attire and equipment after the International Cricket Council (ICC) lifted the restrictions that applied to bilateral international matches.
The ban will be lifted in April, though will still be in effect during ICC events like the World Cup. There were already ways of featuring gambling advertising in the sport, such as by featuring logos in the stadium and on the field, and the use of gambling advertisements prompted a wider conversation to take place – with the CEC deciding to keep the restrictions at a meeting last November.
CEC secretary Clive Hitchcock said of the subject in a message to administrators: “Noting that several members would be restricted from using betting logos in their country, and on the basis that several members had engaged with betting companies for sponsorship, it was felt that the members should have the right to determine for themselves if betting logos should be used in bilateral and domestic cricket.”
The news comes a day after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced it was speaking to England Head Coach Brendon McCullum over his appearances in a series of advertisements for 22Bet – which caused some offence in New Zealand, McCullum’s homeland, for being too aggressively marketed.
The advertisements were pulled from YouTube for violating its policies, with a spokesperson for New Zealand’s Problem Gambling Foundation commenting that the campaign was “the most aggressive marketing I’ve ever seen.”
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