100 signatures reached
To: Coventry City FC
Coventry City FC: Kick gambling ads out of football!
I want my club Coventry City FC to cancel all existing partnerships with gambling companies, to reject future partnerships, and to back The Big Step campaign.
Why is this important?
My name is Sean, I am a recovering gambling addict, I suffered for 14 years in the grips of the hands of gambling companies, taking every penny I earned and developing my behaviour into something that was not normal to those that knew me. This all started from my first bet, underage at the age of 15 in my local ladbrokes on the way to the cov game.
Since then, we have seen a rise in gambling advertisement around football stadiums and over the last 5 years we have seen a massive influx of front of shirt sponsorship. During second season at Birmingham we announced we would have a gambling sponsor, Boylesports. This meant that people would be walking around the streets of cov as walking billboards for a betting company.
The stranglehold of betting companies on football clubs was never more prominent when we renewed it for 2 more years upon our return to the Ricoh and the club posted google map searches and directions to every Boylesports shop in the city.
This led to me getting involved with the Big Step. It is a an off branch to the charity - Gambling with lives, a charity set up by the bereaved families of those who have committed suicide due to a gambling addiction ruining every aspect of their lives to the point of no return.
The aim of the Big Step is to highlight the rise of front of shirt sponsorships to the government and the damage that seeing such advertisement will do, there are already 55,000 children identified as having a gambling addiction in the country and until we get rid of front of shirt sponsorship it will only get worse. I know people will use the phrase that 'they don't print gambling sponsors on kids shirts' but realistically, how many secondary school kids do you know can still fit into childrens clothes? Look around up the CBS this season and see how many kids 100% under the age of 18 that will have 'Boylesports' on their shirts. Where do you think those kids are going to go for their first bet? There is a reason why these companies are acting like vultures and trying to take over our beautiful game.
If you want to send a message to the government to ban this vile practice of advertising on the front of our shirts then please sign and send on - RT, message, anything.
You can also get involved with the Big Step by clicking on this link below.
