West Bromwich Albion FC: Kick gambling ads out of football!

My name's Mike and I've been an Albion fan since I was taken to the Hawthorns in April 2000 to see us draw 4-4 against Bolton, I was only 6 years old. I'm 27 now (soon to be 28) and the last 21 years I've followed Albion through some amazing highs and crushing lows. We have always been a club of inclusion, we are family-orientated trailblazers, unapologetically loud and a founding club of the modern game. We are a beacon of what is and should be right within football, which is why I am asking our club to sever all ties with the promotion of gambling.

I am becoming increasingly concerned with the prevalence of gambling promotion and sponsorship within the game we all love, and unfortunately our own baggies are not immune to this. When I got my first mobile phone I chose T-mobile as my network provider, somehow feeling I was supporting West Brom through doing so, such is the power of advertisement. We have had previous gambling shirt sponsors, the advertising hoardings around the Hawthorns is full of gambling adverts, our social media includes a gambling company on our HT/FT scores and we play in a league sponsored by a gambling company.

I have seen some of my closest friends, whom I have known since childhood, struggle through gambling addiction and lose 10's of thousands of pounds. Thankfully, they are still here today, but a frightening number of gambling addicts unfortunately take their own life. I am NOT anti-gambling, but I absolutely AM against the now almost synonymous link between gambling and football, these two do not belong hand in hand.

There are 409 deaths related to gambling every year in England alone and a YouGov study from this year shows that 2.9 million people are either already addicted or at risk of being so, with a further 3.3 million classified as “affected others”. These stark figures show what we already know: gambling harm is not an issue affecting just a small minority, it is severely harming – sometimes killing – many.

To prevent any young fan from experiencing what my close friends and so many others did, I'm urging West Bromwich Albion FC to cancel all gambling partnerships, say no to any new offers, and back The Big Step campaign.