FA mulls football betting levy
Failure to sell Wembley could see Association call for a tax on bets
The Football Association (FA) is contemplating a levy on sports betting companies to fund the maintenance of Wembley and grassroots football initiatives, according to the organisation’s CEO Martin Glenn.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Glenn said the FA was considering a so-called “fair return” policy for the use of sports betting data and intellectual property.
Glenn said: “France has effectively a tax on gambling. We would call it a fair return on football gambling.
“All those betting companies use our intellectual property to have people lay bets, so why wouldn’t a small percentage of that be put into the thing that made that possible in the first place? We, as football, could approach government and say ‘Have you thought about something like that?”
The comments come less than a fortnight after Fulham owner Shahid Khan pulled out of a £600m deal to buy Wembley Stadium, which reportedly costs almost £15m a year to maintain.
Glenn added: “It doesn’t need to be a big lump sum. We’ve got £64m going into the Football Foundation between the three of us [FA, Premier League and government] – imagine if it was £80m or £100m. If we could get to that it would be brilliant.”
The interview drew an angry response from Remote Gambling Associations CEO Clive Hawkswood who told the Telegraph there was no basis for the introduction of such a fee, as the FA already receives hundreds of millions of pounds from TV rights and commercial agreements.
Hawkswood said: “The British betting industry already pays for the use of football’s intellectual property rights, not least through contractual arrangements with Football DataCo. Alongside that significant funds flow from the betting to the football industries through a range of commercial partnerships such as sponsorship, advertising and joint ventures.”
“If the football authorities wish to use some of those funds to support grassroots football then that is an option they might consider, but there is no basis whatsoever for the introduction of a statutory betting levy to support what most people would consider to be an extremely wealthy sport.”
These comments were echoed by Senet Group CEO Gillian Wilmot. She said: “Instead of looking to further monetize gambling’s relationship with live sport, the FA, clubs and broadcasters should be looking to work with the gambling industry to reduce the amount of gambling advertising around football.”